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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN ENGLISH 
AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 



AARON HILL 

POET, DRAMATIST, PROJECTOR 



COLUMBIA 

UNIVERSITY PRESS 

SALES AGENTS 

New York : 
LEMCKE & BUECHNER 
30-32 West 27th Street 

London : 

HUMPHREY MILFORD 

Amen Corner, E.C. 

Toronto : 
HUMPHREY MILFORD 
25 Richmond Street, W. 



AARON HILL 

POET, DRAMATIST, PROJECTOR 



BY 

DOROTHY BREWSTER 



Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements 

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the 

Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
1913 



YUsTe 



Copyright, 1913 
By Columbia University Press 



Printed from type September, 1913 

Gift 

Then 



Press of 
The New Era Printing Company 

LANCASTER. PA. 



This Monograph has been approved by the Depart- 
ment of English and Comparative Literature in Columbia 
University as a contribution to knowledge worthy of 

publication. 

A. H. THORNDIKE, 

Secretary. 



TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER 



PREFACE 

The study of a minor author entails two main advan- 
tages: his relations with great contemporaries may throw 
light upon them from a new angle; and his activities, 
whether significant or not in their results, may illustrate 
the spirit of his age, and enrich the backgrounds of more 
memorable lives. There is often, too, a psychological prob- 
lem of much interest involved in a vanished reputation. 
Why was a writer, whose works our age declines to notice, 
highly regarded in his own day? It is a problem merely 
pushed aside, not solved, by concluding that the judgment 
of our ancestors was at fault. The attempt to solve it may 
not always result in a contribution to scholarship, but it 
may add a very little to our knowledge of human nature, 
and it sometimes reveals a personality more interesting and 
attractive than the pages in which that personality found 
expression. 

Aaron Hill is an author who offers all these inducements 
to study: he had relations more or less intimate with a 
great poet and a great novelist, and with many less famous 
writers; he was versatile and enterprising to such an un- 
usual degree that he left few of the typical pursuits of his 
time untried; and the prominence of his name in his own 
day, compared with the total eclipse of it in ours, provides 
us with the psychological problem. "To the really in- 
telligent men among his contemporaries, ■ ' Professor Louns- 
bury has said, "he must have seemed the most persistent 
and colossal bore of the century. ' n To disinter an extinct 

i Thomas E. Lounsbury, Shakespeare and Voltaire, 87. ' ' It was to 
posterity," Professor Lounsbury says of Hill in another place (page 
151), "that he looked for recognition, forgetting that posterity must 



X PREFACE 

bore of the past would be a work not so much of pious as 
of impious pedantry — a criminal attempt to increase the 
present sum of boredom. But it is curious that men, 
usually considered to have been really intelligent, expressed 
opinions the reverse of that which Professor Lounsbury 
supposes them to have entertained. By some of them Hill 
was called a genius, by many a man of unusual ability; 
and almost invariably he was spoken of with great respect. 
Were all these men either deliberately insincere, or stupidly 
mistaken ? 

This study makes no effort to rescue Hill's poetry from 
the neglect into which it has deservedly fallen. But in 
following his career, we meet well-known figures, we catch 
glimpses of interesting phases of eighteenth century thought 
and enterprise, and we come to know a man who has no 
title to be hailed as a genius, but who is, nevertheless, very 
far from deserving to be dismissed as a "bore of the first 
water," 2 or as a "joke concocted between the Muses and 
Momus, to bring the judgments of mortals into contempt." 3 

In the unpublished correspondence between Hill and 
Samuel Richardson, preserved in the Forster MSS. in the 
Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington, I have 
found the most interesting record of Hill 's later life ; and 
I am therefore especially indebted to the Keeper of the 
Dyce and Forster Collections for the privilege of examining 
this material. In quoting from the correspondence, I have 
retained the original spelling and punctuation; but in 
extracts from printed works, I have modernized both, for 
I see no advantage in directing attention to Hill's vagaries 

necessarily be so taken up with its own bores that only at rare inter- 
vals can a pious pedantry be trusted to exhume even temporarily the 
extinct bores of the past." 

2 As he is characterized in the Diet, of Nat. Biog. 

3 D. C. Tovey, Memoir of Thomson in the Aldine ed. of his works, 
1897, p. xxiii. 



PREFACE XI 

in the use of commas and italics. I wish to express my 
thanks for courteous assistance to the librarians of Yale, 
Harvard, and Columbia Universities; to the authorities of 
the British Museum, the John Rylands Library of Man- 
chester, and the Bodleian ; and to Professor C. H. Firth of 
Oxford University, through whose kindness I secured read- 
ing privileges at the Bodleian. My friend Miss E. R. Clapp 
examined for me several books to which I did not have 
access, and made helpful suggestions; and my mother has 
been a most patient and valuable critic of my work in all 
its stages. 

In the English Department at Columbia University, my 
thanks are due to Professor A. H. Thorndike and Dr. Carl 
Van Doren for reading my manuscript. But my deepest 
obligation is to Professor W. P. Trent, who first suggested 
the subject of this study, and whose generous interest in its 
progress has been no less helpful to me than his wide and 
intimate knowledge of the period. It is a pleasure to 
express here my appreciation of both. 
New York City, May, 1913. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Hill's Early Life 1 

II. Hill 's Projects 28 

III. Hill and the Stage : 1709-1723 76 

IV. Hill and the Stage : 1723-1749 110 

V. Hill and His Circle about 1725 153 

VI. Hill's Relations with Pope 201 

VII. Hill and Richardson 239 

VIII. Conclusion 275 

Bibliography 279 

Index 291 



AARON HILL 



CHAPTER I 

HILL'S EAELY LIFE 

Aaron Hill was born on February 10, 1685, in Beaufort 
Buildings in the Strand. 1 His father was George Hill, an 
attorney, of Malmsbury Abbey, in Wiltshire, "a gentleman 
possessed of an estate of about 2000 1. a year, which was 
entailed upon him, and the eldest son, and to his heirs for 
many descents. But the unhappy misconduct of Mr. George 
Hill, and the weakness of the trustees, entangled it in such 
a manner as hitherto has rendered it of no advantage to 
his family; for, without any legal title so to do, he sold it 
all at different times for sums greatly beneath the value 
of it, and left his children to their mother's care, and her 
mother's (Mrs. Ann Gregory), who took great pains with 
her grandson's education."- Perhaps it was his father's 
misuse of his legal knowledge that led Aaron Hill to acquire 
what one of his biographers calls a "deep insight" into 
law — so deep that his arguments sometimes obliged "the 
greatest council (formally) under their hands to retract 
their own first given opinions." 3 It was not deep enough 
to enable him to win a law-suit, however. Another son of 
George Hill, Gilbert, appears from time to time during 
his brother Aaron's life and after his death, usually in a 
state of distress. 

1 For biographies of Hill, see the Bibliography. 
2Cibber's Lives, V, 252 f. 
s Ibid., V, 261. 



2 AAEON HILL 

At the age of nine, Aaron Hill was sent to the free 
grammar-school at Barnstaple in Devon, where he had for 
a schoolfellow John Gay, also born in 1685. From Barn- 
staple he went to Westminster, just a little too late to come 
under the rod of the famous Dr. Busby, who died in 1695. 
There were two classes of students at Westminster: Town 
Boys, and King's (or Queen's) Scholars, elected after a 
year from among the Town Boys. Hill evidently remained 
a Town Boy, for his name does not appear in the list of 
those elected to the Foundation. His friendship with 
Barton Booth, the actor, who entered the school about 1690 
and left in 1698 to go on the Dublin stage, probably began 
at Westminster; and perhaps his interest in the stage was 
first aroused, like Booth's, by the annual Westminster play. 
Another Westminster boy, afterwards famous, — John Car- 
teret, Earl of Granville, — was referred to by Hill as a 
schoolfellow; 4 but he must have entered just about when 
Hill left, for he was five years his junior. Hill eulogized 
him in his poem, The Impartial (1745), but confided to his 
friend Richardson that he really was not sure that what 
he said of him was true. 5 

At Westminster Hill received the usual classical educa- 
tion of the time. 6 One little contemporary picture of con- 
ditions in the school is perhaps worth quoting. The mother 
of a Westminster boy, Colin Campbell, wrote in February, 
1691: "Colin is a busie man at all his leasons; is every 
day at scoul all this winter befor 7 o'clock, and his wax 
candle with him, and doth not com out till past 11, and 
they returne at 1, and stay until neir six. This was far 

4 In the dedication of The Impartial to Carteret by ' ' his Lordship 's 
quondam schoolfellow. ' ' 

5 Hill to Richardson, April 6 and 9, 1744. Forster MSS. 

s See G. F. Eussell Barker, Memoir of Bicliard Busby, etc., London, 
1895, and John Sargeaunt, Annals of Westminster School, London, 
1898. 



hill's early life 3 

from his dyot at hom, and in the great cold scoul he sits the 
whole day over without a hatt or cap, and all the windows 
broak, and yet thanks be to God, he taks very well with it, 
tho he never seeth a fire but in my hous." 7 She notes, 
however, that the reputation of the masters for severity has 
not been borne out so far in Colin 's case. Hill, too, unless 
the boy was very different from the man, was probably a 
' ' busie man at his leasons, ' ' and tradition says that he was 
a "busie man" at the lessons of his fellows as well : "Under 
the care of Dr. Knipe, his genius showed itself in a distin- 
guished light, and often made him some amends for his hard 
fortune, which denied him such supplies of pocket money 
as his spirit wished, by enabling him to perform the tasks 
of many who had not his capacity." 8 It is more likely that 
his helpfulness was prompted by good-nature, and by the 
inadequacy of his own tasks to employ all his energy; if 
he really increased his pocket money by his genius, it was, 
I think, the only instance of the kind in his life. Aside 
from this anecdote, there is little to show what sort of boy 
he was, except one reminiscence of his own, which suggests 
that he was imaginative and sensitive to impressions : in his 
Plain Dealer, 9 after praising Spenser for bold descriptions 
and quick, penetrating fancy, he goes on: "There is in 
his works an image of Death so dreadfully drawn, and 
painted in such glowing colors, that (having got it by heart 
when I was a boy) it made so lively an impression on me 
that I never failed for a long time after to see it at my 
bed's foot as soon as the candle was carried out of the room, 
and met it in every churchyard I passed over after sun- 
set." 10 

7 Quoted by Sargeaunt, Annals, etc., 287. 

s Cibber 's Lives, V, 253. Dr. Thomas Knipe was Busby 's suc- 
cessor. 
9 No. 91. 
io Hill 's appreciation of earlier poets occasionally took a form that 



4 AARON HILL 

The conventional Westminster boy proceeded in due 
course either to Christ Church, Oxford, or Trinity College, 
Cambridge; but Hill was not the conventional boy. "At 
fourteen years of age he left Westminster school; and 
shortly after, hearing his grandmother make mention of a 
relation much esteemed (Lord Paget, then ambassador at 
Constantinople), he formed a resolution of paying him a 
visit there, being likewise very desirous of seeing that 
empire." 11 Mrs. Gregory, being a woman of "uncommon 
understanding and great good-nature," sympathized with 
this adventurous scheme, and furnished him with funds 
for the voyage. He embarked on March 2, 1700, aud 
travelled by way of Portugal and Italy. Unfortunately, 
the diary he is said to have kept has not come to light, 
but many particulars of the journey were incorporated in 
his Ottoman Empire. Lord Paget was surprised at the 
arrival of his young relation, and it is a proof of the at- 
tractions of Hill's person and character that he was also 
pleased at the boy's enterprise. He promptly provided for 
him "a very learned ecclesiastic in his own house, and 
under his tuition sent him to travel, being desirous to im- 
prove, so far as possible, the education of a person he found 
worthy of it. ' ' These travels took Hill to Greece, and the 
islands of the J^gean, and by caravan into the Holy 

arouses the ire of their modern admirers, though it was quite in 
accord with the feeling of his own age. He "improved" poems of 
Wotton and Donne. (See The Disparity, from a Hint of Sir Henry 
Wotton, WorTcs, III, 310; and To a Lady who Loved Angling, from a 
Bint out of Br. Bonne, WorTcs, IV, 58.) In the very brief notice of 
Hill in The Cambridge History of Eng. Lit., IX, ch. VI, p. 210, the 
alteration of Wotton 's ' ' You meaner beauties of the night ' ' is singled 
out by Professor Saintsbury as a crime he finds it very difficult to 
pardon Hill for. 

ii Life by "I. K. " prefixed to Hill 's Bramatic WorTcs. 



HILL S EARLY LIFE O 

Land ; 12 he visited Mecca as well as Jerusalem. He was in 
Egypt in the spring of 1701, and back in Constantinople in 
1702. Needless to say, he had adventures, and the most 
interesting parts of his Ottoman Empire are those in which 
he tells of them, though he introduces them merely by way 
of illustration. 

Once, when Hill and others were returning from a visit 
to a British ship, they met a Turkish fanatic, "a certain 
tattered wretch, in the habit of a pilgrim, leaping up and 
down, with elevated eyes, contracted forehead, and a visage 
full of passion and deformity. (He) held a dagger in his 
hand, and skipped about with such . . . violence as made 
me take his zealous transports for madness ; so that taking 
him for some simple antic, I laughed aloud at his ex- 
travagant diversion. He saw me laugh and made directly 
towards me with his brandished weapon, which a Greek in- 
terpreter, endeavoring to turn aside, received unhappily 
to the hilt within his bosom." He then hurled his dagger 
at Hill, who avoided it by dropping to his knee. Of course 
Hill killed him. 13 

At Sestos and Abydos, Hill paid his respects to the 
lovers; and after quoting Musaeus, he adds with a trace of 
humor that the sentimental traveller has opportunity 
enough to weep, for Turkish official red-tape detains him 
there three days. At Troy he was sure that he had found 
a fragment of the original wall and the tomb of Hector. 
His vessel was detained near the coast by adverse winds 
long enough to permit him to land, with an Italian priest, 

12 <■ ' >Tis really a diverting entertainment for a sprightly fancy to 
observe what multitudes of superstitious Jews swarm up and down 
in every caravan; the oldest, ugliest, and most decrepit of all man- 
kind, who flock from every distant corner of the spacious universe 
to die as near Jerusalem as possible, and load themselves and other 
beasts of burden with the musty bones and tattered relics of their 
dead relations" (Ottoman Empire, 274). 

is Ottoman Empire, 82 f . 



6 AARON HILL 

and they walked about three miles up into a desolate 
country overgrown with brambles. At least one English- 
man had been there before them, for scratched on the 
marble of the supposed tomb of Hector were the lines : 

" I do suppose that here stood Troy ; 
My name it is William, a jolly Boy; 
My other name it is Hudson, and so 
God bless the sailors, wherever they do go. 

I was here in the year of our Lord 1631, and was bound for old 
England, God bless her." 14 

At Samos, Hill watched the sponge divers, and tried 
diving himself with their apparatus, though "more than 
most men averse to diving." 15 At Patmos, he was de- 
termined to see the chapel where St. John was said to have 
written the Book of Revelations; and unable to persuade 
anyone to go on shore with him, he landed alone, and started 
out with pistols and scimetar to find the monastery. While 
wandering about, quite lost, on a wooded hill, he discovered 
"on the brow of an impending precipice a little hut or 
cave," with a door which he pushed open. "I was all 
amazed when I perceived the inside of the cell as still as 
possible; . . . just against the entrance burned a lamp on 
either side a little altar, and the weak and broken light . . . 
discovered in the midst a large black coffin filled with 
something ... as black and dismal ... as the coffin. ' ' This 
dismal something was a living Italian hermit, who proved 
to be a most agreeable companion, and escorted the young 
traveller to the monastery. 16 

14 Ottoman Empire, 206 f . 

15 Ibid., 210-211. He and his fellow travellers were induced to 
try their skill when they heard of a law among the divers "that no 
man shall be allowed to marry, till he can demonstrate by a trial he 
is qualified to dive for one continued quarter of an hour. ' ' Hill kept 
his head under only two minutes. 

16 Ibid., 213 f. 



HILL S EARLY LIFE 7 

Hill's pictures of the streets of Cairo — especially of a 
bowing ass, a climbing goat, and a dancing camel — are 
entertaining. 17 But his most thrilling adventure happened 
in the catacombs, some fifteen miles southeast of Memphis. 
To visit them was a dangerous enterprise, for they were 
remote from protection, and the wandering Arabs had an 
unpleasant custom of closing the entrances after travellers 
had entered, and then returning "some few days after to 
divide the plunder of those miscarried gentlemen." Hill 
and three others secured a guide, journeyed all night, and 
found the desert apparently deserted. Near the opening of 
the catacombs, however, they were surprised to see a ladder 
of ropes. They "went backwards down, with each man a 
pistol in one hand and a lighted torch in the other. A 
strange uncommon smell saluted our first entrance with an 
odor not to be imagined by such as have not known it by 
experience, and the blazing torches, striking a faint glim- 
mering light through the thickness of the gloom, discovered, 
as we walked along, on either side the discolored faces of 
the dead, with a strange and inexpressible horror. We had 
scarce passed three yards within the vault when the fore- 

1 7 Ibid., 242 f . Hill did not rest till he found out how they taught 
the camels to dance : ' ' They make a large square hollow place on 
some stone pavement, not unlike a bath, of such depth that nothing 
let down thither can get out again but with the same assistance he 
was first put in by. Under this paved floor, consisting . . . of . . . 
fire-stone, is built a furnace into which they put a necessary quantity 
of wood, and heating it to what degree they please, the stones grow 
hot like some mild oven. Then they put the poor meek camel into this 
square hollow, heated as it is, and standing around the edges of the 
place begin to sound their drums or other instruments; continuing so 
to do, while the unhoofed and tender-footed camel, all impatient of 
the heat, first draws up one leg, then another, changing swifter as the 
heat, increasing, burns his feet with greater anguish, till at last he 
rears himself on end, and capers nimbly on his hinder feet, as if he 
strove to imitate a dancer. ' ' After a course of this training, he is 
ready to dance anywhere at the sound of that music. 



8 AARON HILL 

most of our company, stumbling accidentally on something 
that lay in his way, fell headlong over it ; whereupon, hold- 
ing down our torches, we perceived two men in Christian 
habits, extended cross each other, and appearing newly 
dead, with all the pale and frightful marks of a convulsive 
horror in their . . . faces. Between the feet of one there 
lay a pocketbook and pencil, which taking up and opening, 
we read with great difficulty . . . lines there written in 
Italian." It seems the unfortunate Italians had been shut 
in by Arabs on June 18, 1701 ; it was then June 22. 
Alarmed, the explorers hurried back to the entrance, 
arriving just in time to see the stone shoved over the aper- 
ture by some persons above. The ladder was gone. Hill 
urged the company to search for some other exit, and keep- 
ing only one torch alight, they hurried from vault to vault. 
Suddenly they caught a glimpse of six faces against a wall 
ahead of them. "With one consent we fired our pistols. 
Tis impossible to make the reader sensible of the pro- 
digious loud report and rumbling noise this one discharge 
created in the vault. . . . "Whether fear, or some unlucky 
accident produced the cause, . . . the frighted guide let fall 
his torch, which presently extinguished." When the 
smoke cleared away, they perceived a ray of light, and 
followed the gleam until they came to a hole in the wall, 
through which they finally escaped into daylight. Several 
Arabs were riding off with their mules ; they had evidently 
come back to plunder the Italians and had been surprised 
by Hill's party. Just then some Turkish soldiers arrived 
opportunely, recovered the mules, and allowed the party 
to finish in safety their explorations in the catacombs, and 
to attend to the obsequies of the Italians. 18 

is Ottoman Empire, 264 f. The cut illustrating this adventure 
represents a cross section of the vaults, quite in the style of a bill- 
board for a modern melodrama, and allows us to see the desert, two 
stories of the catacombs, and all that is happening above and below 



HILL S EARLY LIFE y 

After all these adventures — rather unusual for a boy — 
Hill returned to Constantinople, apparently near the end 
of the year 1701 or the beginning of 1702. In the acknowl- 
edgment of Lord Paget 's kindness, prefixed to the Ottoman 
Empire, Hill writes that after visiting Palestine, Egypt, 
and other eastern parts, he came to Constantinople "time 
enough to owe the best improvements of my education to 
the generous care of this wise nobleman, whose instructions 
and example gave me first a notion of the world, and under 
whose protection I was afterwards so happy as to see it to 
advantage, having had the honor to attend him from the 
Turkish court to England, in a journey overland through 
almost all the celebrated parts of Christendom." Lord 
Paget, with his suite, started on his return some time in the 
late spring or early summer of 1702; he went by way of 
Bulgaria and Koumania into Germany; in September he 
reached Holland, and was then ordered to proceed to 
Vienna ; and in December he went from Vienna to the court 
of Bavaria. Not until April 12, 1703, did he and his suite 
arrive in England, after a passage from Holland that had 
been enlivened by a sea-fight with the French. 19 

The next certain date in Hill 's life is that of the publica- 
tion of his Camillus in 1707. He probably remained at- 
tached to Lord Paget 's household for a short time after the 
return to England, and it may be to this period that the 
mysterious operations of a malevolent female, mentioned by 
his biographer, belong : 20 ' ' He was in great esteem with that 

ground. Lady Mary W. Montagu remembered this adventure when 
she contradicted a statement of the admirable Mr. Hill's about the 
sweating pillar of St. Sophia; she says (incorrectly, according to 
her editor) that "there is not the least tradition of any such matter; 
and I suppose it was revealed to him in vision during his wonderful 
stay in the Egyptian catacombs" (Letters and Works, ed. of 1887, 
I, 236). 

isLuttrell, Brief Historical Relation, TV, 287 (April 13, 1703). 

ao Gibber 's Lives, V, 254. 



10 AARON HILL 

nobleman ; insomuch that in all probability he had been still 
more distinguished by him at his death than in his lifetime, 
had not the envious fears and malice of a certain female, 
who was in high authority with that lord, prevented and 
supplanted his kind disposition towards him. My lord 
took great pleasure in instructing him himself, wrote him 
whole books in different languages, on which his student 
placed the greatest value ; which was no sooner taken notice 
of by jealous observation than they were stolen from his 
apartment, and suffered to be some days missing, to the 
great displeasure of my lord, but still much greater affliction 
of his pupil, whose grief for losing a treasure he so highly 
valued was more than doubled by perceiving that, from 
some false insinuation that had been made, it was believed 
he had himself wilfully lost them. But young Mr. Hill was 
soon entirely cleared on that head." 

It may have been some such misunderstanding that 
started Hill off on his travels again, or it may simply have 
been that a good opportunity for further travel presented 
itself. Eighteen, he wrote later, was too early an age for a 
young man to think of leaving England; "this I know by 
personal experience, having been beholding to my latter 
travels for a full digestion and improvement of the unripe 
observations vainly gathered in my former." 21 When a 
young man is sent abroad, he should be accompanied by a 
tutor not much older than himself, but of riper experience. 
It happened fortunately that a noble family in Yorkshire 
shared this view, and gave into Hill's charge a young 
gentleman, with whom he travelled for two or three years. 
This was William Wentworth, of Bretton Hall in Yorkshire, 
who was born in 1686, and succeeded his father, Sir 
Matthew, in the baronetcy in March, 1706. 2 - It is very 

21 Ottoman Empire, 333. 

22 Joseph Hunter, South Yorkshire, London, 1828, II, 243. Sir 
William was afterwards Deputy Lieutenant and Captain of Train 



hill's early life 11 

probable that their travels were brought to an end by the 
death of the young man's father. All that is recorded of 
this episode in Hill's life is that he brought his pupil home 
"improved," to the satisfaction of his relations. No doubt 
this was a more conventional tour than the former. 

And now, about 1706-1707, Aaron Hill was back in Eng- 
land, much improved himself by his unusual education, and 
with one "improved" youth to his credit. What was he 
going to do? With the activities of his life in one's mind, 
one might better ask, what was he not going to do? He 
was evidently a very engaging young man. The pleasant 
impression made by his portrait in the Ottoman Empire 
(1709) is confirmed by the description of him in Cibber's 
Lives: "His person was (in youth) extremely fair and 
handsome; his eyes were a dark blue, both bright and 
penetrating; brown hair and visage oval; which was en- 
livened by a smile the most agreeable in conversation; 
where his address was affably engaging; to which was 
joined a dignity which rendered him at once respected and 
admired by those (of either sex) who were acquainted with 
him. He was tall, genteelly made, and not thin. His voice 
was sweet, his conversation elegant, and capable of enter- 
taining upon various subjects." 

One of the most picturesque figures in public life at the 
moment was the Earl of Peterborough. For about two 
years he had been carrying on the campaign in Valencia, 
in the interests of the Allies, who were supporting the 
claims of Charles of Austria to the Spanish throne ; he had 
been the hero of several brilliant victories — notably the 
capture of Barcelona — and of many striking incidents. At 
times, he had conducted himself more like a knight errant 
than the general of an army. Not the least interesting 

bands, and M. P. for Malton. His name is in the list of subscribers 
both to the Ottoman Empire and to Hill's WorTcs, 1753. 



12 AARON HILL 

feature of this Valencia campaign was (and is) the diffi- 
culty of finding out the truth about it. Peterborough has 
sometimes been exalted as a hero and sometimes cried down 
as a mere figure-head. 23 He was, says one of his biog- 
raphers, "a source of delightful possibilities; nobody knew 
exactly what he had done, and nobody could predict what 
he might not do." 24 His conduct in Valencia aroused some 
suspicions in the government at home, and he was recalled 
to England in February, 1707. On his way back, he visited 
many of the courts of Europe, conducting negotiations with 
powers to whom he was not accredited, and did not reach 
England until August. The Queen refused to see him, 
unless he explained satisfactorily several incidents in his 
career. Although he was a Whig, the Tories, out of hostility 
to his rival Marlborough, took up his cause, and Dr. Freind 
published a favorable account of his conduct in Spain. In 
January, 1708, a Parliamentary inquiry was held, with the 
result that he was neither vindicated nor censured, but was 
ordered to clear up his accounts. 

23 The Military Memoirs of Captain George Carleton, etc., 1728, 
long regarded as containing the direct evidence of an eye-witness of 
Peterborough's exploits, pictured him as a hero. These Memoirs were 
claimed for Defoe by his biographer Walter Wilson in 1830. Colonel 
Arthur Parnell {History of the War of the Succession in Spain, 1888), 
who believed that Peterborough himself promoted the writing of the 
Memoirs and that Swift wrote them, removed Peterborough from his 
prominent place in the Valencia campaign, and gave the credit of 
many of his exploits to others — to Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, 
Basset y Kamos, Sir John Leake, and so on. The Earl emerges from 
Colonel Parnell 's account with his character as a general and as a 
man considerably battered. William Stebbing, whose Peterborough 
(1890) is named by the Diet, of Nat. Biog. as one of the best short 
accounts, takes a much more favorable view of Peterborough than 
Parnell. In volume IX of The Cambridge History of Eng. Lit., page 
25, Professor Trent — as Mr. C. E. Doble had done before — concludes 
that Defoe was almost certainly the shaper of Carleton 's Memoirs. 

24 William Stebbing, Peterborough, 192. London and New York, 
1890. 



hill's early life 13 

Peterborough's exploits in Spain were precisely of the 
sort to strike the imagination of Hill, — they were very 
unusual, they showed ingenuity and enterprise. And ac- 
cordingly, Hill sat down and wrote a poem to the general — 
Camillus. The hero's name is attacked; the Muse should 
assist justice in proclaiming the truth; but the task of 
singing his praise is one of such difficulty that it causes 
tumultuous terrors to roll about the poet's breast — "Here 
justice summons; there my youth denies." After this 
apology, the poet plunges into the War of the Spanish 
Succession : 

" A wild confusion o'er the globe is hurled, 
And warlike earthquakes shake the Christian world." 25 

In the confusion, Charles of Austria directs his prayers to 
' ' matchless Anne ' ' ; Anne sends to his rescue a chief formed 
by art and nature to revenge the wrongs of Charles; the 
expedition embarks for Barcelona with a good wind arid 
swelling hopes. The greater part of the poem is taken up 
with a description of the capture of Montjuich, a fortress 
commanding Barcelona. It was a daring exploit, and in 
Hill's account loses nothing in exciting detail. One speci- 
men will suffice : 

" The shattered limbs of men who nobly dare 
Are borne on bullets through the flaming air; 
The dismal prospect shocks the bravest hearts, 
And adds new motion to disjointed parts." 26 

The walls are finally won, not by the army, but by the 
general who "needs no council, and who seeks no praise." 

25 Ed. of 1707, 11. 66-67. 

26 In Hill's Works (1753) there are a number of variations from 
the edition of 1707; probably he was aiming at closer expression — 
which too often means obscurity with him; for example: 

(1707) "With helpless sighs the injured Austrian stands." 
(1753) "Sighing, the young prevented Austrian stands." 



14 AARON HILL 

The Muse would like to paint all his battles, but as that is 
impossible, she greets his safe return, and throws the worth- 
less numbers at his feet. 

The Earl noticed the worthless numbers, was pleased with 
them, inquired after the author, and made him his secre- 
tary. 27 This enterprising and travelled young man had 
expressed in his indifferent poem precisely what Peter- 
borough felt to be true of himself — that he needed no 
counsel but his own. It is easy to see what sympathy might 
exist between such a man as Peterborough and young Hill. 
The Earl was an adventurous spirit, " irrepressibly elastic," 
with a brain "so fruitful in combinations that they jostled 
and thrust one another out ' ' ; 28 and just those terms could 
be used in describing Hill, though he had not as yet estab- 
lished his claim to them. 

The connection with Peterborough is said to have lasted 
until Hill's marriage in 1710. 29 Possibly he assisted the 
Earl in straightening out his accounts; and since he is be- 
lieved to have kept no accounts worth mentioning, the task 
could not have been absorbing. 30 The vindication of Peter- 
borough in 1710, after a renewed inquiry, was not the re- 

27 Cibber 's Lives, V, 255. 

28 Stebbing, Peterborough, 227. 

20 As late as September 17, 1709, Peterborough was taking an 
interest in the Hill family, for Hill writes to Archdeacon Warley that 
his brother is "sure of a considerable curacy and promise of a pres- 
entation from the Earl of Peterboro, on the death of an old and sickly 
incumbent. ' ' The brother had evidently been misconducting himself 
at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and wished to make atonement by taking 
orders, "tho . . . unqualified by the Formality of a Degree"; he 
will be grateful to the archdeacon for a recommendation to the 
Bishop of London for leave to be ordained (Add. MSS. 27997. f. 78. 
Aaron Hill to the Archdeacon of Colchester). 

so "As he could render no regular accounts, his property was 
attached till he should have cleared up his pay-lists. . . . Throughout 
the remainder of 1708 and the early months of 1709 he was occupied 
with the compilation of ledgers." Stebbing, 169. 



hill's early life 15 

suit of a satisfactory statement of his accounts — it simply 
meant that there were then more Tories than Whigs in 
Parliament. 31 The secretary also examined the Earl's 
papers. Pope, commenting, many years after, on a flatter- 
ing reference to Peterborough in Hill's Advice to the Poets 
(1731), wrote to Hill that really no one but the general 
himself could do his cause full justice : " I have long pressed 
him to put together many papers lying by him to that end. 
On this late occasion, he told me you had formerly en- 
deavored the same, and it comes into my mind that on many 
of those papers I had seen an endorsement, A. H., which 
I fancy might be those you overlooked. My lord spoke of 
you with great regard, and told me how narrowly you both 
missed of going together on an adventurous expedition." 32 
Joseph Warton notes that this was an expedition to the West 
Indies; 33 there was a rumor current in July, 1708, that 
Peterborough was to be appointed governor of Jamaica, 34 
and it may be to this that Warton refers. Pope's letter 
bears witness to the continuation, long after the close of the 
secretaryship, of Hill's friendly relations with the Earl; 
and Hill visited Peterborough at Parson's Green not long 
before the latter 's death. 35 

That Hill's duties were not arduous is evident from the 

si The Earl is said to have introduced Hill to the Tories, Harley and 
St. John ; and though Hill was not a party man — the one thing he did 
not do to any extent was to engage actively in politics — he never 
lost his admiration for Bolingbroke. Ulerope and Gideon were both 
dedicated to him; see in the Merope dedication such lines as 
"Find every grace that smiles twixt pole and pole, 
And all the muses met — in St. John's soul." 

32 Pope to Hill, April 4, 1731. Col. of 1751. 

33 Works of Pope, ed. by Warton, 1797, VIII, 330. Peterborough 
had received the same appointment in 1702, but did not go. 

34 Stebbing, Peterborough, 169. 

ss The visit is recorded in the introduction to Hill 's Fancied. They 
talked of Marlborough and his modesty. 



16 AARON HILL 

record of his literary activity during this period. The year 
1708 saw two of his poems published, his Ottoman Empire 
advertised as ready for publication, and a connection with 
the British Apollo established. He was probably frequent- 
ing the coffee-houses and mingling in literary society. We 
find him associated with Nahum Tate in a translation, and 
helping his old school-fellow Gay to get on his feet. Gay's 
first poem, Wine, was advertised in May, 1708, in the Daily 
Courant, together with the Celebrated Speeches of Ajax 
and Ulysses, by Tate and Hill. Rumor assigns to Gay as 
his earliest employment, after he gave up his trade of 
mercer, that of secretary to Hill : ' ' Gay became amanuensis 
to Aaron Hill, Esq., when that gentleman set on foot the 
project of answering questions in a weekly paper called the 
British Apollo.'' 36 Whether or not Gay was really his 
secretary, he probably was much in the company of Hill 
at the time; for when, in 1736, Savage wished to collect 
information about Gay, he applied to Hill as apparently 
the one who could tell most of his early career. Hill 
mentioned Budgell and Pope as better informed ; but added 
that Gay was secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth about 
1713, and continued so until he went over to Hanover in 
1714; and after the fall of the Tories, he was helped by 
Pope : "I remember a letter, ' ' writes Hill, ' ' wherein he 
[Pope] invited him to partake of his fortune (at that time 
but a small one), assuring him, with a very unpoetical 
warmth, that as long as he himself had a shilling, Mr. Gay 
should be welcome to sixpence of it ; nay, to eightpence, if 
he could contrive but to live on a groat. ' ' 37 

That Hill was connected with the British Apollo is estab- 
lished by the facts that the numbers for the first year, 1708, 
contain a dozen or more short poems, unsigned, but later 

36 Key to Three Hours after Marriage, 1717. 

37 Hill to Savage, June 23, 1736. Worls, I, 338 f. 



hill's early life 17 

included in Hill's acknowledged works; and that a Mr. 
Marshall Smith, who edited the second edition of this first 
volume, figures in Savage's Miscellany as author with Hill 
of a dialogue on riches and poverty. Hill's works, too, 
both the Ottoman Empire and Elfrid, were extensively 
advertised in the paper. The British Apollo was started in 
February, 1708, by a "society of gentlemen"; the second 
volume (1709) was "performed" by some of the gentle- 
men concerned in the first. As to their identity, it is 
perhaps enough to quote Apollo's own answer to a cor- 
respondent's question about their age, number, and share 
in the work: "It must suffice to say that the number of 
the society is large enough, and all of them of sufficient age, 
to answer far more pertinent questions than yours." 

The British Apollo was by far the most important and 
successful of the imitators of Dunton's Athenian Gazette 
(later the Athenian Mercury), which had appeared twice 
a week for six years, from March, 1690. 38 The purpose of 
Dunton's publication — a seventeenth century Notes and 
Queries — was to resolve "all the most nice and curious 
questions proposed by the Ingenious of either Sex"; and 
this was also the chief purpose of the British Apollo. But 
to the "curious amusements for the ingenious," Apollo 
added "the most material occurrences, foreign and do- 
mestic," and much verse, — which had been very sparingly 
printed in the Athenian Mercury. In both papers there 
are questions concerning the Bible, medicine, physics, 
mathematics, and ethics; discussions of love problems; 
queries why negroes are black, why the Lord took six days 
instead of one minute to create the world, why it hails in 
warm weather, what causes freckles, how to know true 
religion, whether English was spoken at the Tower of 

38 See The English Literary Periodical of Morals and Manners, by 
John Griffith Ames, 1904, pp. 7-22. s 
3 



18 AARON HILL 

Babel, and so on. Most of the answers in the British Apollo 
are serious in tone, but a few attempt to be humorous. 39 
The Female Tatter* was witty at the expense of the paper, 
classing its querists as drapers, grocers, alehouse keepers, 
and such trash, and declaring that the prentices in Cheap- 
side consult Apollo before making love to their mistresses. 
But the paper, like its predecessor, answered a real demand 
of the public, and drew its patrons from many walks of 
life; and it had a very successful career, until it was sup- 
planted in popular esteem by the Tatter and the Spectator. 
In all probability, Hill had long ceased to have any con- 
nection with it when his friend Gay, in his Present State of 
Wit (May 3, 1711), found room in a postscript for a slight- 
ing reference : ' ' Upon a review of my letter, I find I have 
quite forgotten the British Apollo, which might possibly 
have happened from its having of late retreated out of this 
end of the town into the country; where, I am informed, 
however, that it still recommends itself by deciding wagers 
at cards, and giving good advice to shopkeepers and their 
apprentices." A week after Gay's comment, the paper 
died. 

Those poems that are certainly of Hill's authorship are 
not at all remarkable, and are very short. 41 Of the lighter 

39 An example of Apollo 'a wit may be quoted from vol. II, no. 7 : 
A querist had formerly troubled Apollo with a question how to win 
the love of a lady; he followed directions and won it; now he wished 
to know why ladies are fond of lap-dogs and singing-birds ; "for the 
same reason," replies Apollo, "that your mistress was conquered by 
your wit — because they are little. ' ' 

40 No. 30. It lived from July to March, 1709-1710. 

4i The Lover's Degree of Comparison {Apollo, ed. of 1711, I, 34; 
Works, 1753, III, 11) ; Jostling in Snoivy Weather (I, 49, and Works, 
III, 359) ; The Lover's Complaint (I, 60, and Works, III, 231) ; The 
Transport (I, 233, and Works, III, 232); The Happy Man (I, 49, 
and Works, III, 163) ; Amorous Scrutiny (I, 60, and Works, III, 360) ; 
Blowing Kisses at the Playhouse (I, 49, and Works, III, 344). 



hill's early life 19 

verse, the Lover's Degree of Comparison is a fair example: 

" Happy the man who does Celinda view. 
More happy he who sees and loves her too. 
Most happy, sure! of all mankind is he, 
Who, loving her, beloved by her shall be." 

The Transport shows Hill already addicted to Pindaric 
verse : 

" Mount, my freed soul ! forsake thy loosening clay, 
Broadly at once expand thy wingy zeal; 
Rapture, involved in raptures, feel, 
And through yon dazzling regions cut thy way," etc. 

A more ambitious attempt, on the lines of Camillas, was 
inspired by an event that occurred in the spring of 1708. 
In March, a French fleet assembled at Dunkirk, with the 
Pretender on board, and on March 17 set sail for Scotland, 
where some attempts had been made to organize a rebellion 
in favor of the Pretender. The fleet missed the Firth of 
Forth, was closely pursued by the English fleet under the 
command of Admiral Byng, encountered heavy storms, and 
after about three weeks, put back into Dunkirk, having lost 
some four thousand men from sickness, tempest, and 
capture. 4 - On this subject Hill wrote The Invasion, ad- 
dressed to the Queen. 43 The poem tells how the fiend 
Ambition disturbs the repose of the king on Gallia's throne ; 
how the king and the Pretender plan an invasion ; how the 

42 See The Political History of England, ed. William Hunt and 
Reginald L. Poole, IX, ch. VII, 134 f. London, 1909. 

43 The poem is by "Mr. Hill"; and is almost certainly Aaron Hill's 
work, for it is very much like Camillas in style and subject. The fact 
that it is not included in his collected Works proves nothing, for 
another long poem, The Fanciad, is not included either; and we have 
his word (Forster MSS.) that he had many published and unpublished 
poems from which he was making a selection for his Works. Thomas 
Bickerton was the printer of Camillus, The Invasion, and (with 
William Keble) the Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses. 



20 AARON HILL 

army and fleet assemble at Dunkirk, where "tonitruous 
drums" beat, "neighing horses snort a great design," and 
warlike ensigns "in pendant curlings fan the wanton air." 
England hurriedly despatches her fleet against the in- 
vaders : 

" Britannia's sons with cheerful shouts come nigh, 
And their loud triumphs pierce the vaulted sky; 
On the high decks, the graceful chiefs appear; 
Invite the battle and disdain to fear. 
Their sprightly trumpets gay defiance sound, 
And wondering fishes dance in shoals around." 

No wonder the Pretender's knees knock together at the 
sight. To see the battle that follows, Neptune takes up his 
station on a rock, Jove reclines on a cloud, and all the gods 
look on, stretched at wanton ease upon the strengthened air. 
Jove chooses for some reason to help the French tyrant by 
interposing a cloud of darkness between the navies, and 
Neptune, furious, stirs up a storm that nearly destroys the 
French fleet. 

"Such fate may Anna's foes forever find; 
May Heaven on her still smile, nor Hell disturb her mind." 

In May, 1708, Nahum Tate and Hill appeared together 
as the authors of a translation, The Celebrated Speeches 
of Ajax and Ulysses, from the 13th book of Ovid's Meta- 
morphoses. They dedicated it to the illustrious youth of 
the nobility and gentry, to assist them in learning to speak 
in affairs of state ; since Ajax lost his cause and Ulysses won 
his, their methods are worthy of study. The authors are 
not discouraged by previous renderings of the same 
passages, even by the Master of the Muses, — "there's a 
double Benefit will accrue from having various Transla- 
tions of so Excellent a Piece, (viz.) That (amongst us) 
all the Beauties of the Original may be catcht, with perhaps, 



hill's early life 21 

a heightening Stroke, in some Places; and likewise a fuller 
Display of our own Language, which (after all) will be of 
the greatest Service to You, Auspicious Youths, when you 
come into Public Business." The chief object is to inflame 
the blooming glories (the young men?) of Great Britain 
with a love of classical learning. Tate has an address to 
the reader, acquainting him that ' ' 'twas the Usefulness of 
this Essay that prevailed with the Ingenious Gentleman 
concerned with me to perform his Part." The speech of 
Ulysses was translated by Hill, in the usual heroic couplets, 
smooth enough and not remarkable in any way. 44 

"We now come to his most pretentious work thus far — his 
Ottoman Empire. It was advertised in the British Apollo 
for July 2, 1708: "Whereas the present state of ^Ethiopia, 
etc., in folio, with cuts, by Mr. Aaron Hill, should have 
been published last April, hut was delayed for filling the 
subscriptions, this is to give notice that the copy is now 
sent to the press, and that the author will speedily advertise 
in the public news." But it was not until the following 
March that the book came out, with a dedication to the 
Queen. 45 

There are fifty-two chapters, dealing with the extent of 

44 A few lines may be quoted : 

"Here, to and [sic] end, his Speech Great Ajax draws, 
And rising Murmurs spoke the Camp's Applause, 
Which soon th' Appearance of Ulysses drown 'd, 
Who fix'd his Eyes a while, upon the Ground: 
Then to the lofty Bench his Aspect rais'd, 
And, while expecting Crowds in Silence gaz'd, 
With Words like These, He acts a subtil Part, 
And dress 'd his Speech in all the Charms of Art." 
I have not seen this book, of which the John Bylands Library of Man- 
chester, England, has a copy; but I have photographs of the title- 
page, dedication, and some pages of the text. 

45 Advertised in the Daily Courant, March 12, 1709, and in the 
British Apollo, March 30, 1709. 



22 AARON HILL 

the Turkish Empire, the Turkish policy, the military and 
civil government of the Turks, their religion and morals, 
their trade, their wives, their funerals, the public and 
private buildings in Constantinople, and the Grand Sign- 
ior's Seraglio; the Greeks, the Armenians, Egypt, Ethio- 
pia, the source of the Nile, Palestine, Arabia, and the Red 
Sea. The book concludes with two chapters, one on the 
probable fate of the Ten Tribes of Israel, and the other 
containing instructions for the traveller. In the general 
arrangement of topics, there is some resemblance to Sir 
Paul Rycaut's Present State of the Ottoman Empire 
(1668), which treats of the manners and customs, the laws, 
the religion, the military forces, and the political maxims 
of the Turks. So far as Turkey itself is concerned, there 
was probably little really new information in Hill's work; 
in the discussion of the different religious sects of the 
Turks and of their marriage and divorce laws, and in the 
estimate of their military forces, Hill and Ryeaut agree 
rather closely. But the chapters on Greece and the iEgean 
islands, — with their almost Byronic lamentations over the 
degeneracy of the Greeks, — and those on Egypt and Arabia, 
must have been more novel; and the description of the 
great pyramid, which Hill explored in the party of an 
adventurous Bashaw, who defied native superstition to 
enter it, is very interesting. The work is that of a curious 
and observant, but very young man, eager to show his 
learning by much classical quotation, and his early wisdom 
by many moral reflections. 

The book is illustrated by seven plates, each dedicated to 
some member of the nobility: an Egyptian hieroglyphic 46 
to the Countess of Peterborough, the adventure in the 
catacombs to the Earl, a Grecian wedding to Sir William 
Wentworth, the inner plan of the Seraglio to the Countess 

46 The interpretation of hieroglyphics offered no difficulties to Hill. 



hill's early life 23 

of Warwick, the outside view of it to Lord Paget, a Turkish 
funeral to Sir Alexander Cairnes, and the picture of Turks 
of quality at dinner to the Duchess of Ormond. These 
noble names indicate one reason why Hill published the 
book by subscription — his connection with Lord Paget, 
Peterborough, and the Wentworth family evidently made 
possible the securing of a long list of subscribers. 47 Another 
reason was annoyance at the booksellers: having printed 
some few little essays "the common way," he knew the 
booksellers and was far from approving of them; in fact, 
he intimates that Britain could produce wretches as bar- 
barous and sordid as any he ever met with among the 
infidels. They presumed to claim two books free for every 
six subscriptions, and when he remonstrated with them, 
they cried down his book in every way they could. Not 
that he is not perfectly willing to listen to fair and just 
objections ! But the objections he has heard are not reason- 
able. He takes them up in his preface. 

"Some snarlers do, and many more may, cavil at the 
style I have made use of, and the weightiest arguments 
they bring against it are that it appears affected and 
elaborate; that 'tis dressed in a romantic air, and that, in 
short, 'tis so like poetry, that it runs into blank verse 
measure and becomes a kind of prose-poetic composition. 
... As for its being dressed in a romantic air, were that 
malicious accusation full as just as 'tis absurd, I cannot 
see the reasons why it should be looked upon as an ob- 
jection. Everybody knows the language of romances differs 
from more serious writings only in the fine descriptions, 
florid speeches, artful turns, and winning eloquence which 

47 There were 424 names on the list. Pope had 575 subscribers to 
the Iliad. Among the names on Hill 's list were the Queen, the Dukes 
of Devonshire and of St. Albans, the Earl of Bath, the Marquis of 
Granby, Lord Halifax, the Duke and Duchess of Ormond, John Gay, 
and William Fortescue. 



24 AARON HILL 

are made use of to adorn and recommend a feigned rela- 
tion." And if these ornaments shine in a feigned account, 
why not much more in a true ? If his style is near poetry, 
is not poetry better than prose, and is not the best prose, 
therefore, that which is nearest poetry? "That I might 
not alone inform, but please my reader, I have taken care 
in the succeeding sheets to introduce as many stories as I 
could, with different aims ; for some are moral, some divert- 
ing, others melancholy, and of all kinds some. ' ' They may 
be called digressions; but are they not, like the moral and 
occasional reflections, good things to have? 

The stories are sometimes diverting enough, but the style 
is often still more diverting. It is occasionally easy and 
familiar, especially when it addresses itself to the ladies : 
"Now to give you British Ladies an enlivening taste of 
Turkish arrogance to your deserving sex, and let you see 
how little cause you have to grieve that we possess a just 
and mild preheminence by Nature's laws and those of 
matrimony," he translates a Turkish song, one stanza of 
which reads, 

" But though she proudly dares rebel 
The time will come when I shall see 
The poor inferior wretch in hell, 
Not worthy once to look on me." 4S 

At other times, it is what he probably called poetical. 
Chapter XIII, on Turkish wives, begins: "The inimitable 
Virgil was undoubtedly inspired with Love and Truth when 
he asserted this so oft experienced maxim, 

1 Omnia vincit Amor, et nos cedamus amori.' 

The roughest heroes of the ancient world, amidst the dusty 
scenes of war and ruin, red with blood of undistinguished 
slaughter, and encompassed round with care and danger, 

48 p. 42. 



hill's early life 25 

often slackened nature's springs, and sinking calmly from 
the love of glory, let their laurels wither on their heads, 
and lost the sense of honor, and renown, entirely stupefied 
in all their faculties, and slumbering meanly in the downy 
scenes of this lethargic passion." 

Hill himself later looked upon all this with very dif- 
ferent feelings. When an attempt was made in 1739 to 
issue a pirated edition, he begged Richardson to do some- 
thing to stop it : 49 "I was in hopes that in a town where the 
best things I am able to write are so little regarded, the 
worst might have been suffered to sleep in their merited 
neglect and obscurity ... To confess the truth, I was so 
very a boy when I suffered that light piece of work to be 
published, that it is a sort of injustice to make me account- 
able for it." 50 

40 Hill to Kichardson, December 19, 1739. Eichardson 's Corre- 
spondence, ed. Mrs. Barbauld, I, 35. 

50 I am informed by Professor Trent that in Mercurius Politicus for 
May, 1720, Hill's Ottoman Empire was mentioned in very question- 
able company. The occasion was an attack on Defoe 's ' ' History ' ' of 
the deaf and dumb fortune-teller Duncan Campbell, which was styled 
a "wretched Book," and associated with "such scoundrel Books as 
. . . Eobinson Crusoe, the Travels of Aaron Rill Esq; into Turkey, 
Psalmanazaar's History of the Island of Formosa, and the more 
scandalous Tale of a Tub . . . Works only fit to lead the ignorant 
into Error, and to waste the Time, and deprave the Taste of such as 
being more knowing read them only for 'Diversion. ' ' In the number 
of the same periodical for July, everything that had been said against 
the ' ' History ' ' of Duncan Campbell was taken back, the editor having 
had time to read it carefully. It is interesting to know that this 
editor was no less a person than Daniel Defoe, the biographer of 
Campbell and of Eobinson Crusoe, and it seems clear that both notices 
in Mercurius Politicus were designed to call attention to his newest 
book. His attitude, therefore, towards Hill's Ottoman Empire is 
scarcely worthy of more than a moment's amused attention. He is 
not known to have had any personal relations with Hill, but he appears 
to have had some sort of a quarrel with Hill's friend William Bond 
(cf. post chapters IV and V), probably over this very life of Duncan 
Campbell. 



26 AARON HILL 

A second issue was published in March, 1710, with a 
preface by the printer Mayo, announcing that he had pur- 
chased the right to this edition. It contained commenda- 
tory verses; one of them speaks of Hill's Ascanian youth 
exhibiting the bounteous product of Nestorian years; and 
another, by Marshall Smith, reads: 

" Let Heaven point out a man like thee, possessed 
Of all the charms that can inspire the blest; 
A scholar, courtier, poet, and divine, 
Historian, traveller, and all that's fine." 

In the year of this second edition Hill married. His wife 
was the daughter and heiress of Edmund Morris, of Strat- 
ford in Essex, and the marriage was apparently a very 
happy one. Of the nine children, only four lived, to bear 
the names of Urania, Astraea, Minerva, and Julius Caesar. 
The marriage marks a turning point in his life ; for it pre- 
vented him from going abroad with Peterborough in No- 
vember — his wife would not hear of the trip ; 51 and the 
fortune it placed at his disposal enabled him to embark on 
the projects, literary and commercial, that from this time 
on filled his life. So varied, numerous, and complex were 
his activities, that an attempt to record them in chrono- 
logical order would be merely confusing. Only by group- 
ing them — into commercial schemes, theatrical enterprises, 
and relations with other literary men — can their signi- 
ficance be brought out. Broadly speaking, chronology is 
not so badly violated as one might expect in such a treat- 
ment; for the most important projects occupy roughly the 
years between 1712 and 1730; the most important work 
for the stage, the years 1730-1738, though much has to be 
recorded during the twenty years preceding; and the rela- 

5i Letter to Peterborough, November 10, 1710. Worls, I, 1. 



hill's early life 27 

tions with other authors extend from 1725 to 1750. In 
that order they will be considered. In 1710-1711, Hill had 
a brief but interesting connection with the theatre, best 
treated with his other theatrical connections. Then, in 
1712, he turned to devote himself to the commercial ad- 
vancement of England. 



CHAPTER II 

HILL'S PEOJECTS 

Hill, the indefatigable projector, passed his early man- 
hood in an age of projects. The time-spirit of that age, 
easily evoked for the imagination even today by the mere 
names of Mississippi Bubble or South Sea Bubble, was one 
of reckless speculation. The establishment in 1694 of the 
Bank of England removed one restriction that had fettered 
commerce — lack of capital ; and laid the basis of the credit 
system — a new and powerful economic instrument, ready 
for the experiments of men who did not yet understand its 
use. Then, after the Revolution, the regulated companies 
that had controlled trade gradually sank in importance, 
and left an opening for individual enterprise. As small 
traders found it possible to speculate on changes in the 
market rates, legitimate business became more and more 
speculative. The system of joint-stock trading made it easy 
for the outside public to share the gains, without sharing 
the cares, of business. "The new trades which were being 
opened up, and the new industrial facilities which the credit 
system seemed to offer, appeared to have turned the heads 
of many of the men of that day." 1 The vision of un- 
bounded wealth had all the compelling power of the earlier 
visions of political and religious liberty. Men who were no 
longer stirred by ideals, over which the last two generations 
had fought, were excited by lotteries, dazzled by the 

1 W. Cunningham : (Growth of English Industry and Commerce in- 
Modern Times, 4th ed. of 1907, Part I, 447. For the characteristics 
of this period see also Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. Ill, 
and Lecky, Eighteenth Century. 

28 



hill's projects 29 

splendor of the Mississippi Bubble, and thrown into frenzy 
by the seemingly unlimited possibilities of the vast and 
little understood South Sea scheme. Then came the burst- 
ing of that gigantic bubble. The fever subsided, leaving 
behind it a distaste for projects, which extended to innova- 
tions of all kinds, and made the Walpole era conspicuous 
for the lack of public spirit and public enterprise. 

Yet all the projects before 1720 were not bubbles, in- 
spired by the gambling instinct. There were projectors 
genuinely interested in improving the condition of their 
countrymen by the introduction of new inventions, the 
establishment of new industries, even the reform of social 
conditions. One need only think of Defoe, and of some of 
the ideas in his Essay upon Projects, 2 to realize how near 
allied the projector might be to the reformer, and both to 
the sane and practical man of business. To the more dis- 
interested class of projectors — not, unfortunately, to the 
more practical — belonged Hill. His devotion to inventions 
and new enterprises was not to be affected by the mere 
bursting of bubbles, for it was based on persistent, if not 
always fruitful, researches in chemistry, physics, medicine, 
agriculture ; and nourished by an insatiable desire to benefit 
somebody — or rather everybody — and by an incurable be- 
lief in himself. "When his schemes failed, as they had an 
unlucky habit of doing, he deplored the loss of his own time 
and money much less than the loss to his country of the 
good he was firmly convinced it was in his power to bestow. 

The most opprobrious epithet Hill's enemies could find 
for him in later years was "beech-oil projector." The 
germ of his famous beech-mast project — destined, in his 
own opinion, to make more noise than any discovery in the 
way of trade for ages past — lay in an incident that occurred 

2 Such as the establishment of academies for women, of asylums for 
the feeble-minded, and so on. 



30 AARON HILL 

on his adventurous journey to Turkey in 1700. On his 
arrival at Naples he caught a severe cold ; the apothecary 
advised oil of almonds, and the boy observed with interest 
the process of beating the nuts with an iron pestle and then 
squeezing them in a wooden press. "A few days after," 
to quote his own words, "I went with an Italian friar to 
see the burning mountain Vesuvius, the cave, the grotto, 
the tomb of Virgil, and many other rarities of that cele- 
brated neighborhood ; and happening one day to take a by- 
road for expedition, we crossed a very large wood. ... As 
we rode along, the boughs, which were at that time over- 
loaded with full-ripe mast, hung low and were exceeding 
troublesome, so that I was often forced to bend forward 
upon my horse, and to make use of a strong stick to guard 
off the branches." He ate several of the kernels that fell 
down on his hat, and finding the taste not unlike that of 
almonds, concluded that, if taste and substance were 
similar, the effects of pressing almonds and beech-nuts 
would be similar. So he pocketed several, dried them, and 
with the apothecary's mortar and pestle made an oil that 
the apothecary himself could not distinguish from that of 
almonds. So far Hill's "natural curiosity" led him; he 
carried some of the oil about for a year or so on his travels, 
and then forgot the incident. 3 

"In the year 1712, some affairs of no great consequence 
calling me into the west of England, I returned about the 
middle of September from Devonshire, and taking no direct 
road, came along by Henley and the woodiest part of 
Maidenhead Thicket, where, for twelve or fourteen miles 
together, a man can hardly see any other wood but beech." 4 
Reminded of Naples by the sight of the mast, Hill resolved 
to see what sort of oil the English nut yielded. It proved 

3 An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Beech-oil Invention, 
1715. 

4 Ibid. 



hill's projects 31 

excellent. He experimented with it for various uses : the 
clothiers, the perfumers, and the apothecaries all liked it 
better than the oil they used. A short investigation proved 
that the demand for oil was enormous. Then he journeyed 
through the greater part of twenty-two counties in search 
of beech, and found in the least of them enough to supply 
oil to three kingdoms three times over. The next question 
was how to raise stock to develop this new industry. Opti- 
mistic as he was, he found it difficult to understand why 
people did not embrace him as a benefactor to his kind, and 
pour out money at the first hint of the secret. They did 
not, however; they treated him as a mere borrower of 
money and assailed him with cries of "whim" and 
"project." He saw that he would have to explain his 
process fully; and in order to do so safely, he took out on 
October 23, 1713, a patent for fourteen years, and then 
published his first proposals in January, 1714. 

In this pamphlet, 5 Hill gives an abstract of the letters 
patent granted by the Queen to her trusty and well-beloved 
subject. Then, after a few reflections upon the opposition 
every new proposal meets with from the envious and the 
ignorant (his sentiments on this head expanded into elo- 
quence within a few months), he states that there are many 
hundred thousands of acres of beech within fifty miles of 
London; and one bushel of mast will produce two gallons 
of oil, far better than most of that for which England pays 
thousands of pounds yearly to Portugal, Spain, and Italy. 
The new discovery will give better oil at cheaper rates for 
the soap and woolen manufactures, 6 raise the rent of many 

s An impartial account of ... a new discovery . . . to make . . . 
oil from the fruit of the Beech-tree. 1714. 

6 Any scheme that had reference to the woolen manufactures 
touched a vital question. Defoe, in his General History of Trade, 
August, 1713, speaks of their preservation as the great concern of the 
nation; the French run every risk to get hold of English wool, and 



32 AARON HILL 

estates, employ great numbers of the poor, and enable Eng- 
land to supply other nations (like Holland and Sweden) 
that have no beech. 

All possible objections, however, shall be answered. Some 
say there is not enough beech. Yet Sussex, Surrey, Ox- 
ford, Berkshire, and many other counties are so full of it 
that a horseman can scarcely see the sun through the 
branches, and the mast hangs like ropes of onions; right 
along the banks of the Thames are woods, "as if they 
courted the conveniency of water-carriage." That the 
price will be too high for profit is another objection, an- 
swered by a scale of charges for every hundred acres — 
labor, carriage, ware-housing, and so on ; the cost would be 
less than eight pounds, the sale-price, thirty pounds a tun. 
The possibility of a combination on the part of the owners 
of woods to raise the price of mast alarms some people, but 
does not disturb Hill. Would seven or eight hundred 
gentlemen, far apart from one another and unacquainted, 
maintain a malicious league 1 If such a mad alliance were 
practicable, there is enough mast in the unenclosed woods 

the prohibition to restrain its export is ineffective; "unless some 
speedy method be taken to redress this grievance ... we may soon 
shake hands with our foreign trade." In his Appeal to Honor and 
Justice, 1714 (vol. VIII, 205, of Aitken's edition), he says that were 
the wool kept from France and the English manufactures spread 
there upon reasonable duties, the improvement the French have made 
in woolen manufacture would soon decay. Even the philosophers con- 
cerned themselves with the subject: Mandeville (Essay on Charity 
and Charity Schools) declares that it is not the smuggling into France 
that is ruinous ; the trouble is that they can manufacture more cheaply 
because their labor is cheaper; make English laborers more contented 
by keeping them ignorant, and England can increase her exports more 
effectively than by sitting still and damning her neighbors. Hill's 
plan — to make the manufacturing cheaper by obviating the necessity 
of heavy imports of oil — has more of humanity and social justice than 
Mandeville 's. To go far beyond this period, Dyer's Fleece (1757) 
has a passage in Book II on the dangerous smuggling of wool. 



hill's projects 33 

of France — where their olives make them indifferent to 
any other kind of oil — to render importation profitable. A 
letter from W. Cecil, at Paris, October, 1713, is quoted in 
proof. It is true that there are bad years, perhaps two 
out of three; but mast may be stored without deteriora- 
tion for a couple of years, or imported from abroad, where 
the trees are not subject to "insulary mutations of 
weather. ' ' That the oil will not keep may be disproved by 
a very simple experiment: expose olive oil and beech oil 
together for a day in the sun ; the former will become rank, 
the latter remain good. As to the objection that the stock 
proposed will make more oil than can be disposed of, Eng- 
land imports perhaps twenty thousand tuns and makes 
fifty thousand tuns at home from rape seed ; the stock will 
not produce one-twentieth of this yearly consumption. ' ' I 
hope I have said enough," concludes Hill, "to convince any 
man living that this undertaking will be very profitable." 
Samples of the mast were fastened to the books, with in- 
structions how to test its oiliness by burning. 

The stock was to be 20,000 pounds, one-fourth down, and 
the rest at Michaelmas, 1714. Subscribers were to receive 
an annuity of 50 per cent, upon the sum subscribed, to con- 
tinue until the expiration of the patent, which was as- 
signed to them by a deed enrolled in Chancery. The com- 
pany was to be governed by nine directors, elected by a 
majority of the subscribers from their own number; and 
though the Patentee was to be at the head of the board, he 
might be removed by the directors, if he failed to give 
satisfaction. "The Oil Annuity Office will be kept at the 
Patentee's house, against the upper end of the Duke of 
Montague 's, in Great Russell Street, in Bloomsbury ; where 
the books are now opened, in order to receive subscrip- 
tions. ' ' 

As a patron for the enterprise, Hill fixed upon the Earl 
4 



34 AARON HILL 

of Oxford, — not a very lucky choice, since his power ended 
even before the fall of the Tory administration at the death 
of the Queen in July. In a letter to Oxford of April 12, 
1714, 7 Hill admits having already troubled him anony- 
mously before. This was with a scheme for remitting the 
land tax by a new sort of contribution, which would be 
paid ' ' insensibly, ' ' and bring in a revenue of four millions 
yearly. 8 Oxford's failure to inquire further about it has 
deprived us. of the details. 9 A year later, in the third 
beech-mast pamphlet, the same scheme is outlined in the 
same terms, to be more fully demonstrated "if I have the 
honor of a vote in the next Parliament, in gratitude to 
those honest burgesses, who were lately pleased to send me 
up an invitation to represent them, under the common seal 
of their corporation." 10 But Hill never had the oppor- 
tunity to reveal his plan in Parliament. The letter con- 
cerning beech-mast was thus his second attempt upon 
Harley. With a sample of the product new to Britain, he 
sent a sample of his own proficiency as poet and flatterer, — 
a poem, "no more than an honest man's poor acknowledg- 
ment of duty inexpressible." The Dedication of the Beech 
Tree hails the happy tree : 

7Stowe MSS. 143, f. 128; also Sloane MSS. 4253. 

s See letter to Oxford, April 14, 1714, Works, I, 3; and May 12, 
1714, Worlcs, I, 7. 

9 There were probably many of these schemes for remitting the land- 
tax. The Examiner, September 25, 1713, advertises proposals for an 
easy tax to raise two or three millions, in room of the land tax, to pay 
the public debts. 

i° In 1711 a bill was passed that all members of Parliament, except 
the eldest sons of peers and those who sat for universities or Scotch 
constituencies, must possess landed property, the borough members to 
the extent of 300 pounds and country members 600 pounds a year. 
Lecky, Eighteenth Century, I, 128. That Hill was considering Parlia- 
ment at all indicates that he had some property at this time. 



hill's projects 35 

" Would after ages know 
To whom their sons thy oily harvests owe, 
Oxford's loved name deep on thy bosom grave, 
Who from his country did his country save; 

Whose known esteem of arts gave birth to thee, 
Omen of greater, which ere long shall be." 

And among these greater things are several of Hill's most 
cherished projects: the teeming glebe is soon to swell with 
floods of generous wine; that "various insect" which spins 
out its little life's industrious thread — the silk- worm, in 
plain terms — is to be acclimated; more important than all, 
the gummy pine in Scotland is to shed its pitchy store, and 
the tall firs are to fright the seas. Something else is to 
happen, too; but whether the last lines are a prophecy of 
the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, or the discovery of the 
Northwest Passage, I cannot decide; perhaps of all, for 
Hill saw many visions and dreamed many dreams. In con- 
cluding his letter, he humbly — and vainly — requests the 
honor of attending on Harley in some unbending moment. 
The result of the first proposals is stated in the second 
pamphlet, published in May, 1714 : X1 the 20,000 pounds was 
subscribed in ten days. 12 But it happened unfortunately 
that 1713 was a very thin year for mast; it was not, as in 
1712, hanging on the trees like ropes of onions. 1714 was 
to be a wonderful year, but 1715 would again be poor. In 
view of that prospect, therefore, Hill wished to increase his 
stock, in order to lay up a supply of mast for two years. 
The new proposals were for 100,000 pounds in fifty-pound 
shares, one-tenth to be paid down. The directors increased 

11 The proposals are advertised in the Examiner, May 10-14, 1714. 

12 An advertisement in the Englishman, January 23, 1714, states 
that 13,000 pounds was subscribed in nine days, "notwithstanding 
the ridiculous reports and mistaken notions which have with so much 
malicious industry been spread abroad to discourage the undertaking. ' ' 



36 AARON HILL 

in number from nine to thirteen, were to be placed in 
possession, without charge, of the granaries on the Thames 
for two years; all expenses of operation were to be borne 
by the patentee, in return for his one-tenth of the purchase 
money; with the other nine-tenths, to be called for as the 
directors should appoint, the directors were to pay for the 
mast and issue such quantities to the patentee as he re- 
quired, receiving from him double the sum they had paid 
for it. As additional security, the patentee was to make 
over to the directors, before Michaelmas, the work-houses, 
presses, oil-works, and so on, with the power, in case the 
mast were not paid for in two years, to take complete 
possession with all profits, except what was due to the 
annuitants on the first proposals. To support these offers 
and get at the reasons of those who railed at him in the 
coffee-houses as a projector, Hill resorted to a persuasive 
dialogue, between Patentee and Country Gentleman. Most 
of the objections disposed of in the first proposals are in- 
corporated in this not very sprightly conversation. Among 
other things, the Patentee assures his interlocutor that 
patents do not encourage monopolies. At last Country 
Gentleman exclaims, "Why, it is a national benefit you 
propose ! " " So do I love to think it, ' ' Patentee replies. 

The result, despite the cavilling of the envious, was the 
subscription of the total amount in a few days ; and there 
was thus a capital of 120,000 pounds, with two sets of 
subscribers on different securities. Hill energetically set to 
work. He rented granaries and provided a work-house at 
Vaux-hall on the Thames, where barges from Berkshire 
could readily unload ; not liking the machinery of the rape- 
mills, he planned a new engine, capable (as any engine of 
his would be) of doing "infinitely" more work at a quarter 
of the expense; and he despatched agents over England — 
especially to the wool manufacturing counties — and even to 



hill's projects 37 

Europe, to ascertain the demand for oil and the supply 
of beech available. During June, July, and August, 1714, 
these agents sent in weekly reports that were both enthusi- 
astic and specific, though the enthusiasm began to cool a 
little by August. The demand for oil was indeed great, 
but there was a blight upon the beeches. The next year, 
however, was to be marvellous — they all agreed as to that. 
John Brown, who journeyed through Kent, Sussex, Surrey, 
and Hampshire, in September, must have been a man after 
Hill's own heart: he is in such raptures that words fail 
him at times. "I spoke," he says, "with the warreners. 
. . . These have all prodigious tolls of beech in their several 
limitations, and they told me that this time two years, the 
whole forest was so thick with mast that they hung like 
hops, and bore the branches down to the very ground ; and 
when they fell, they lay so thick that they were forced 
in several places to shovel them out of their foot-paths. 
They said that every third year is such a bearing year, and 
that by the early, thick, and most prodigious budding of the 
trees, the next season must be the greatest and most plenti- 
ful for beech-mast that ever was heard of." The reports 
from Hamburg, Paris, and Orleans were favorable. 13 

Nevertheless, the rumors of blight alarmed the sub- 
scribers, only too ready, no doubt, in the unsettled state of 
the country, to be uneasy. To have to explain again and 
again that there was enough mast in England to keep the 
works going, and that he had contracted for more from 
abroad, began to weary Hill. When the time for paying 
the rest of the subscription drew near, he announced that 
those who were dissatisfied could withdraw what they had 
already paid in, with a 25 per cent, profit. All the sub- 
scribers on the second proposals accepted; those on the 
first were divided ; and the result was the reduction of the 
stock to 15,000 pounds. 

is This account is given in the third Beech-oil pamphlet, 1715. 



38 AARON HILL 

Within a short time, Hill had another set of proposals 
out. 14 These he prefaced by some general reflections on the 
attitude of the public towards projects. London, it is true, 
has suffered so much from projects that the word has 
become "downright scandalous." But there is a distinc- 
tion between project and discovery: one is a mere notion 
having no real or visible existence; the other is a fact in 
nature or art capable of demonstration. His scheme be- 
longs to the second class; hence the folly and wickedness 
of those who "stir up a general odium against a devil of 
their own raising and blast the credit of this new discovery, 
which can possibly do no man hurt, but on the contrary 
will save the nation millions of money, and give bread to 
many thousands of families, when I and all these empty 
prattlers shall be dust and ashes. . . . These idle busy- 
bodies, these tongue-champions, who like a drum owe all 
their noise to their being hollow, these waspish, stingless 
insects, ought to know that the guilt they practice is not 
only a misapplication of their time, and a prostitution of 
their reason, but an act as base and villainous as breaking 
open houses, because it prevents and intercepts a blessing 
which would chiefly fall on the widow and the orphan." 
England's cunning natives are always sharpsighted at dis- 
covering impossibilities. "To refuse to be convinced, and 
then conclude a thing impossible, is like winking hard at 
noonday and swearing it is midnight. ' ' 

After relieving his feelings by this outburst, he discourses 
on the invention of useful arts ; blames the education of the 
day as too little practical; and promises to speak more at 
length some time on a "College of Arts," to train youth in 
the knowledge of trade and manufactures. Every comfort 
we have is due to some earlier project; and there are many 

i* An Account of the Bise and Progress of the Beech Oil Invention, 
etc., 1715. 



hill's projects 39 

profitable secrets yet to be discovered. "I am almost 
afraid to venture such a declaration among the disin- 
genuous tempers of mankind, or I could instance and dis- 
close some six or seven such examples, which I have myself 
discovered in my small pursuit of nature, as might animate 
the dullest clod, and would perhaps awake the sleepy genius 
of our nation. . . . Not that I am sharper-sighted than 
others; such discoveries are the result of downright in- 
dustry, and thinking a little out of the beaten road. ' ' One 
discovery he has "lately bestowed on an honest gentleman," 
who will soon demonstrate the secret. "But to what pur- 
pose should I enumerate these, which I am morally assured 
the invincible stupidity of an unthinking age will rather 
turn into ridicule, than believe or make the proper use 
of ? However, if they serve to stir up the fire of some wiser 
man's ingenuity, my country will be benefited, and my 
design has succeeded; I pay back the impudence of folly 
with an equal weight of scorn." He apologizes at the end 
for the warmth of his style — he sometimes forgets that he 
is not addressing his ignorant slanderers. 

The new proposals increased the number of directors to 
twenty-five, and the stock to 200,000 pounds, divided into 
5,000 shares. On each share five pounds and some odd 
shillings were to be paid to Hill, in consideration of past 
charges; forty pounds were to remain in the company's 
hands, to carry on the business; out of each forty pounds 
was to be deducted a half-yearly payment of fifteen shil- 
lings on the annuities. When dividends were made, the 
subscribers' charges were to be repaid, one-twentieth of the 
clear gain given to Hill, and the remainder divided among 
the subscribers to whom the patent was assigned. 15 A 
meeting for the election of the directors — one of whom 
must be the patentee — was to be held March 5, 1715. The 

is The Chancery document quoted bears the date December 20, 1714. 



40 AARON HILL 

plan has great advantages : no one can lose more than the 
five guineas down ; no one but directors chosen by the sub- 
scribers themselves can call for more money ; in a bad year, 
the shareholder is liable only for the thirty shillings on the 
annuities; in a good year, the profit will be one hundred 
and sixty pounds. 

But the good year did not come. 1715, like 1714, disap- 
pointed all expectations of a full harvest. A final pam- 
phlet, issued in November, 1716, records the melancholy end 
of the scheme. Shareholders, peevish and clamorous at the 
bad year, have accused the patentee of faults he is free 
from, and by which he is the greatest sufferer; if they 
looked back, they would remember ' ' how often he publicly 
gave leave to the jealous to withdraw their subscriptions, 
and paid them back their money, when forfeited by the con- 
ditions 'twas subscribed upon; they would remember that 
while he held the power, there were no complaints of non- 
payment, though the seasons were such as allowed not a 
possibility of making a profit." He is not angry, being 
seasoned to ingratitude and not perturbed at the "sociable- 
ness of scandal." But as the bottom is still sound, in spite 
of one losing voyage, he desires to lay the facts before those 
interested. 

About one-fourth of the annuitants 16 had been repaid, 
leaving the patent charged with 7,500 pounds a year in 
annuities ; the second and third proposals had been accepted 
with full understanding that the patent was so charged, 
and that annuitants were always to be among the directors. 
The first half-yearly payment (3,750 pounds) was made by 
the patentee, and never charged to the company. As the 
time for another payment drew near, Hill, seeing that the 
directors had been at extravagant expense for workmen in 

16 The name of Edmund Morris, Hill 's father-in-law, is in the list 
of annuitants. 



hill's projects 41 

an unusually wet season, and were perplexed by the non- 
payment of money on shares, for which they had called, 
contributed 20,000 pounds of his 25,000 guineas as a loan ; 
and then proposed to the board the union of sharers and 
annuitants in one body. His scheme was to pay back a 
guinea to a thousand shareholders who had not complied 
with the calls, thus depriving them of any excuse for inter- 
ference, and giving to the company the disposal of the 
thousand shares. These were to be divided among the 
annuitants ; 17 and as a further inducement to unite with the 
shareholders, Hill offered his right in reversion to the 10,875 
pounds to which the stock was then reduced, and which the 
company had in possession. All but five or six consented 
to change, 18 and gave their warrants in trust to a Mr. 
Kennedy, a director for the annuitants and for the com- 
pany. He did receive and divide the second half-yearly 
payment and the thousand shares; but declared that the 
reversionary security of 10,875 pounds remained with the 
directors ; the money was either lost or spent — at all events 
not in existence for the benefit of patentee, annuitants, or 
sharers. 

Where, asked the patentee, lay the blame 1 He had ful- 
filled his agreement : he had put the annuitants in posses- 
sion of his right in reversion to the stock by a deed enrolled 
in Chancery, and had entered into bond under a fifteen 
thousand pound penalty to indemnify the company against 
all future payments on account of annuities, — a bond that 
would become of force as soon as the stock was secured to 

" Hill calculated that with these shares, and the 3,750 pounds 
already paid and the same amount to be paid at Michaelmas, the 
annuitants would receive eighty pounds for every one hundred they 
had paid. 

is On the ground that the patentee must believe in the profit, or he 
would not have given away his twenty thousand pounds. Of course 
the patentee believed in the profit ! 



42 AARON HILL 

the annuitants. But the board did not fulfill the agree- 
ment. At Christmas, 1715, the patentee offered to take on 
himself the hazard and power of the whole affair (but ac- 
countable to the board for the money) and to bind himself 
to pay for three years a profit of forty shillings a year on 
every share. The offer was rejected. "Upon which, and 
many other provocations afterward," he asked for repay- 
ment of 500 pounds lent to the company; but they denied 
the indebtedness, and so he left them to their measures. 

It is evident that the members of the board quarreled 
among themselves. Some hot-headed annuitants, caring 
little whose fault it was and much that they did not get 
their money, filed a bill in Chancery, charging the patentee 
and their own directors with a scheme to defraud them. 
Eventually they took possession of the patent and chose a 
governor of their own, being under no legal obligation to 
admit the sharers, who had for a year failed to pay the 
annuities. Hill had a plan, unnecessary to give in detail, 
for reconciliation and reorganization; but they probably 
did not even consider it. "See then," he exclaims at the 
end of the last pamphlet, "what a grateful and generous 
encouragement may be expected by men who would dedicate 
their labor to the profit of others ! ' ' 19 

Just what the final issue was is not evident. Hill's part 

1 9 According to the facts stated in the last pamphlet, Hill must have 
given back at least 23,750 pounds of his 25,000 guineas. There is a 
reference to him in J. Oldmixon's Court Tales (1717), p. 52, that 
suggests that he was occasionally in hard straits about this time : " It 
was no wonder to see the fool Baevius (A-r-n H-l) in his gilt chariot 
this week, and the next staring through the Counter-gates, when 
Varus (Steele), a man of wit, set him the example. A humor which 
has prevailed on more wits than one, whom I have known with great 
pride lolling it in a gay chariot in May, and footing it with as good 
a grace in December." The Tales are scandalous stories of intrigue, 
and the reference to Hill and Steele is merely a passing one ; probably 
it ought not to be taken too literally. 



hill's projects 43 

was over; his patent in other hands, and his profit clearly 
of the smallest, if any, for his four years' expense of energy 
and enthusiasm. Of the causes for the ill-success of the 
scheme, the most obvious is the failure of a good beech- 
mast supply for several successive years. Another, no 
doubt, lay in the general feeling of anxiety over the polit- 
ical situation and the rebellion of 1715 ; rumors were prob- 
ably credited far more than they deserved. Hill did what 
he could to quiet the apprehensions of those concerned by 
putting everything into their own hands — a step that re- 
moved the one person who was genuinely interested more 
in the profit of others than in his own, and turned the 
management over to people with conflicting claims and 
selfish motives. Doubtless the remembrance of the en- 
thusiasm with which he had made his unfulfilled prophecies 
acted as an irritant on those who had credited them. Yet, 
a soaring confidence was so vital a trait in Hill's character 
that his contemporaries might have been expected to recog- 
nize it and make the necessary allowances. 

Discouragement with Hill was never of long duration; 
the failure of one project was always soon followed by the 
launching of another from his inexhaustible supply, just as 
the failure of a play or poem to win public applause was 
succeeded up to the last by consolatory anticipations of a 
more intelligent judgment from posterity. We find him 
next engaged with a "society of gentlemen" in a plan to 
publish monthly an account of some new invention. Pos- 
sibly he was himself the whole society, for a MS. note on 
the title-page of the British Museum copy of the Essays 
reads "by Aaron Hill, Esq."; but more probably there 
were others concerned with him. 20 The purpose of the 
society is stated in the advertisement : ' ' All who would have 
these books brought monthly to their houses, paying only 

20 Four Essays, etc., 1718. See Bibliography as to the date. 



44 AARON HILL 

a shilling for each book, at the delivery . . . may be fur- 
nished with them, upon giving notice to the beadles of their 
respective parishes. For our design being nothing but the 
public good, we choose that way of spreading our essays, 
that rich and poor may have them without trouble. . . . 
Throughout the course of our design, there will be handled 
such diversity of subjects that ... it will produce a uni- 
versal solid benefit, by which there is no rank, profession, 
trade, or circumstance of life but will in some part or 
other of the treatise, be particularly . . . interested and 
advantaged. ' ' 

The first essay, "in respect to the ladies," is upon china- 
ware. Although pottery was manufactured in Stafford- 
shire in 1690, no further progress was made in England 
for many years ; Josiah Wedgwood was not born until 1730 ; 
1740-1745 is given as the earliest date for the established 
manufacture of porcelain in England; about the time of 
this essay, it was first produced at Dresden and Vienna. 
Thus the writer was not overstating the case when he said 
that the notion was commonly held that only in China and 
from one sort of soil, buried for an age or two, could fine 
chinaware be made. He was perhaps going a trifle too far 
when he asserted: "We shall prove this report to be noth- 
ing but amusement, by instructing the most ordinary potter 
in England to make as fine china as ever was sold by the 
East India Company; and that with such ease that it may 
be afforded as cheap as the commonest earthen ware. ' ' Then 
follows an explanation of the process of manufacture in 
China. To reproduce these results in England, all that is 
lacking — a somewhat serious deficiency, to be sure, — is the 
earth; England has potters, glaziers, and painters. The 
essayist is firmly convinced that tobacco pipe clay, refined 
ad infinitum, might serve. But an easier way for the 
present is to buy up the old broken china, grind it with a 



hill's projects 45 

flat stone and a runner, refine it, and mix it with quick-lime 
dissolved in gum-water ; it will then be ready for the potter. 
The broken china will not, of course, last for ever, but 
meanwhile there is a profit in the undertaking. And if 
curiosity is sufficiently aroused by the success of the 
scheme, people may look about them and discover suitable 
earth in England. In that event, the essayist is prepared 
with an "infallible, easy, and cheap way to discover what 
different bottoms lie under all lands," whether marl, chalk, 
or clay. The method seems simple enough. 

The reason for ascribing to Hill the next essay, on Coals, 
is slight: the cut illustrating the balls of fuel, made by 
mixing broken coal and Thames mud, is precisely the same 
as that in Sir Hugh Piatt's Jewell House of Art and Nature 
(1594), a heterogeneous collection of inventions, 21 to which 
a passing reference is made in the second beech-mast 
pamphlet. The picture is very cheering: a drawing-room 
fire, two symmetrical pyramids of cannon-balls on each 
side of the hearth, and another pyramid burning in the grate 
— like ten round plum-puddings alight. The essay gives 
minute directions about the proportions of mud and coal, 
the arrangements with lightermen and bargemen, and the 
process of working together the ingredients into balls. A 
bushel of these culm balls is worth two of sea coal, and costs 
about one-third as much.- 2 The Thames "owse" is so fat 

21 The inventions form an extraordinary list, from how to prevent 
drunkenness (the method is not the simple one of abstaining from 
drink), to how to catch pigeons and make a "pleasant conceited 
chafing-dish." This earlier projector was less altruistic than the 
society of gentlemen, for he refuses to reveal the secret of the fire in 
the picture except upon a "reasonable consideration." In 1603, 
Piatt published a tract entitled, ' ' Of Coal -Balls for Fewell wherein 
Sea coal is, by the mixture of other combustible Bodies both sweet- 
ened and multiplied." The coal was to be mixed with clay. 

22 There was great scarcity of fuel in England at this time. See 
Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Part I, 
523, ed. of 1907. 



46 AARON HILL 

and so naturally combustible that it burns with a ' ' striking 
liveliness" for six or eight hours, and makes no foul smoke. 
An inexhaustible supply of the necessary mixture of mud 
and rushes may be found in the area flooded at every tide 
through Dagenham Breach. 

The success of the third project — the repair of Dagenham 
Breach — would have had the unfortunate effect of cutting 
off the fuel supply on which the success of the second 
depended. As there is nothing to connect Hill particularly 
with the scheme, it may be passed over. 23 The last essay 
in the volume deals with the manufacture of wine in Eng- 
land. This was a favorite scheme of Hill's: he mentioned 
it in the Dedication of the Beech Tree, and he attempted to 
carry it out twenty-five years later. Several passages in 
the essay have a Hillian stamp; for instance: "It is a re- 
markable flaw in the genius of our nation to distrust new 
improvements," — a truth Hill was never weary of pro- 
claiming. The experience of a farmer's wife in Kent, who 
found a sparkling wine in place of the verjuice she had 
stored away some months before, convinced "some gentle- 
men of our society" that only through lack of industry was 
England without wine of her own. In fact, six hundred 
years ago wine had been made in England; but the Nor- 

23 Piles were to be driven in on each shore, a strong float made of 
small boats fastened between them, and bricks, manufactured on the 
spot, rolled to the float in wheelbarrows and dumped overboard. The 
force of the tide would tend to spread out the stones, so as to form 
a solid foundation, and to fill the interstices with mud. Whatever 
methods were adopted were not very successful. A notice in the St. 
Ives Post Boy, July 12, 1718, states, ' ' On Thursday seven night last, 
Dagenham Breach was finished and stopt, and it being then spring- 
tide, it did not overflow, and 'tis hoped it will withstand all storms 
and tempests." The Post Boy, March, 1720, advertises for laborers 
to shovel mud into the Breach; and the WeeTdy Journal or Saturday's 
Post, November 18, 1721, refers to Captain Perry, "who lately stopt 
Dagenham Breach." 



hill's projects 47 

mans, wishing to make the country dependent on the wines 
of France, had discouraged grape culture; at least, the 
writer adds, if this is an "imagination," it is not an im- 
probable one. It is true that the rainy climate of England 
is bad for grapes, but to offset that disadvantage the winters 
are milder and the frosts less severe than in France, and 
there are no hailstorms. The few good vineyards that even 
now exist in England would succeed better if these direc- 
tions were followed: choose a light gravelly soil and a 
southern exposure upon a hillside ; select grapes that ripen 
early and have small leaves to admit the sun; plant them 
in long shallow trenches, ten feet apart, and train the 
higher branches on a low wall. The cut that adorns the 
essay is inspiriting: we see the vines climbing the hill, the 
laborers picking grapes and trundling barrows, and the 
owner, cane in hand, taking the air in his vineyard. 

This was the pleasing picture Hill tried later to realize. 
One of his chief objects in removing from London to 
Plaistow, in 1738, was to try out his vineyard theories. He 
writes to Richardson, April 12, 1739, 24 that he has been 
' ' defying the sharpness of the season in Essex . . . planting 
near a hundred thousand French vines, with resolution next 
year to extend them over forty or fifty acres of vineyard. 
For knowing perfectly well it is not our climate but our 
skill which is defective, both as to managing the vines in 
their growth, and their juice in its preparation, I have 
judged it an honester service to my country to establish, if 
I can, the success of so considerable a branch of new 
product to her benefit, than to busy my cares and make 
war on my own quiet by a fruitless concern at [public] 
affairs." In September, he announces that of the cuttings 
put out in March and April, few are less than five or six 
feet high, and some are already bearing fruit.- 5 A week 

24 Eiehaxdson 's Correspondence, ed. by Mrs. Barbauld, I, 22. 

25 September 21, 1739, Correspondence, I, 28. 



48 AARON HILL 

later, he refers to a serious illness contracted by "defying 
the season"; but he hopes to be well enough by the middle 
of October to direct the making of about twenty hogsheads 
of wine, ripened on less than two acres.- 6 His hope of 
recovery proved delusive, and the vintage had to proceed 
without his supervision. A year later, 27 he actually des- 
patched a sample of the wine to Richardson (who had no 
difficulty in restraining his enthusiasm about it), but the 
enterprise had obviously not succeeded. The reason is not 
far to seek. The marshy situation of the house, which 
proved extremely injurious to the health of the entire 
family, must have had an equally bad effect on the grapes. 
For wine to soothe his sick hours, poor Hill had to thank 
his kind friend Richardson, not his own industry and skill. 
He attempted, indeed, to persuade his son to take up the 
work; but the son, a very unsatisfactory person altogether, 
was not likely to succeed where the father had failed. 28 

The eagerness Hill displayed in some lengthy letters, 
about 1740, to William Popple, concerning grape culture 
in the Bermudas, proves at once his preoccupation with the 
subject and his discouragement in regard to English wines. 
Popple's brother was planning to go to the Bermudas, 
where another brother held the post of governor; if he 
would only plant vineyards there — a plan declared practi- 
cable five years before by the Board of Trade — he would 
make, Hill was convinced, enormous profits. Hill felt him- 
self better fitted to give advice ' ' than most men in England, 
where we are sadly defective in whatever relates to a vine- 
yard, every circumstance whereof I had opportunities from 
experience abroad and long and obstinate meditation at 

26 Hill to Richardson, October 16, 1739, Forster MSS. 

27 See his letter to Richardson, September 17, 1740, Correspondence, 
I, 43. This letter contains an elaborate explanation of Hill's process 
of grape fermentation. 

28 Hill to Popple, November 12, 1740, WorTcs, II, 79. 



hill's projects 49 

home to know both in practice and theory. ' ' The Madeira 
wine of Bermuda, if made according to his directions, would 
be finer and more saleable, beyond all comparison, than 
that of Madeira itself. These letters to Popple are interest- 
ing in their way, and the handling of certain objections 
brought forward by some of Popple's Bermuda friends, 
arrogantly conscious of their experience, is an effective bit 
of argumentation. 29 Hill had some reason to scorn the ex- 
perience of the colonial planters ; though his contempt may 
have appeared at the time to be that of the enthusiastic 
theorist for mere facts, subsequent events justified it in 
several instances. Don't expect new lights, he says, 30 from 
the planters and traders; "our mother country, God bless 
her, among the rest of her rights and immunities, has had 
the privilege from time immemorial to declare and believe 
all things impracticable, till they have been proved easy by 
the adventure of others." For instance, the English in 
Jamaica would not believe that coffee could be grown there, 
till they saw it done by the French, under their noses; 
"then, indeed, like the four-footed supporters of our woolen 
manufacture, they trooped quietly after their leaders." 
For twenty years past, he has been trying to "persuade a 
wooden head or two in the south of Carolina" to plant 
sugar-cane. The failure of one experiment, made under 
unfavorable conditions, convinced them that Carolina was 
too cold, despite all proof of the success of sugar-planting 
in still colder climates. "So they will continue to think, 
till some Frenchman of the settlements at their back makes 
it a common return from those colonies ; and then we shall 
have them gravely petitioning Parliament for some aid in 
relief of their ignorance." It did turn out as he antici- 

29 The letters to Popple are dated November 30, 1740' (Works, II, 
82), December 8 (II, 91), December 18 (II, 100), and January 1, 
1741 (II, 108). 

so November 30, 1740. 



50 AARON HILL 

pated : sugar-cane was first cultivated by Jesuits near the 
site of New Orleans, about 1751, and it was a staple 
product there before it began to be grown to any extent in 
South Carolina and Georgia. 31 

Hill had once had more extensive plans in regard to the 
land south of Carolina than the mere cultivation of grapes 
or sugar-cane. On June 19, 1717, Sir Robert Montgomery, 
of Skelmorley in Ayre, obtained from the Palatine (Lord 
Carteret) and the Lords Proprietors of Carolina a grant 
for himself and his heirs and assigns of the land between 
the rivers Alatamaha and Savannah, with liberty to settle 
south of the Alatamaha. The grant erected the district 
into an independent province, to be called the Margravate 
of Azilia; courts were to be established, laws enacted by a 
Public Assembly, and Sir Robert himself was to be ap- 
pointed governor for life. The Proprietors were to receive, 
in addition to a yearly quit-rent of one penny sterling an 
acre, one-fourth of the gold and silver ore taken from the 
hills of Azilia. "In consideration of all which powers, 
rights, privileges, prerogatives, and franchises, Sir Robert 
shall transport, at his own expense, a considerable number 
of families, with all necessaries for making a new settle- 
ment in the said tract of land ; and in case it be neglected 

3i The Plain Dealer, No. 99, March 1, 1725, reflects Hill's views of 
the open-mindedness of those in charge of colonial affairs: the agent 
of an American colony is represented as uttering the pious wish that 
the gentlemen in charge of the trade of the Colonies might be pro- 
moted to the peerage— an office of less trouble than their present one 
and more in proportion to their abilities; he goes on with ironical 
comments upon their experience and their vigor in forwarding move- 
ments for the encouragement of their countrymen abroad; in illus- 
tration, he tells of a Turkish sultan who sent several sages to en- 
courage the industries in Egypt; they refused to remit certain taxes 
to the cotton planters, whose crops had suffered in an inundation, on 
the ground that they should have sown something that would not have 
been hurt by water — wool, for instance. 



hill's projects 51 

for the space of three years from the date of this grant, 
the grant shall become void, anything herein contained to 
the contrary notwithstanding." 

His grant secured, Sir Robert published his proposals, to 
attract the capital necessary for the new settlement. 32 He 
was himself well-fitted to write a prospectus : he had a fine 
imagination, unembarrassed by facts; and he had, too, a 
sort of ancestral experience in colonization, for his father 
had accompanied Lord Cardross on the ill-fated expedition 
to establish a military station near Port Royal in 1682. 33 
A "colonizing humor," as he said, ran in his blood. But 
there were other equally imaginative and experienced 
gentlemen ready to assist him — among them Aaron Hill. 
Hill's share in the prospectus is perhaps to be found in the 
glowing promise of large profits, to arise, during the very 
first year of the settlement, from the manufacture of potash 
according to a new and cheap method. Hill and potash are 
inseparably linked by his biographers: 34 he experimented 
with his method in Scotland and at Plaistow, but his profits 
were all on paper, and his secret died with him. Aided, no 
doubt, by Hill's vision, Montgomery pictured an Eden 
south of the Savannah. ' ' It lies in the same latitude with 
Palestine herself, that promised Canaan which was pointed 
out by God's own choice to bless the labors of a favorite 
people. It abounds with rivers, woods, and meadows. Its 
gentle hills are full of mines, — lead, copper, iron, and even 
some of silver; 'tis beautiful with odoriferous plants, green 
all the year. Pine, cedar, cypress, oak, elm, ash, or walnut, 

32 A Discourse concerning the design' & establishment of a new 
Colony to the South of Carolina, etc., London, 1717. Beprinted in 
American Colonial Tracts, vol. I, May, 1897. The grant is quoted in 
the Discourse. 

33 The colony was destroyed by Spaniards in 1686. 

si See Cibber's Lives, V, 271; and the life by "I. K." in Hill's 
Dramatic Worlcs, I. 



52 AARON HILL 

with innumerable other sorts, . . . grow everywhere so 
pleasantly that though they meet at top and shade the 
traveller, they are at the same time so distant in their 
bodies and so free from underwood or bushes that the deer 
and other game, which feed in droves along these forests, 
may be often seen half a mile between them." The soil is 
so fertile that orchards are raised merely to feed pigs 
withal. "Paradise, with all her virgin beauties, may be 
modestly supposed at most but equal to its native excellence. 
. . . Nor is this tempting country yet inhabited, except 
those parts in the possession of the English, unless by here 
and there a tribe of wandering Indians, wild and ignorant, 
all artless and uncultivated as the soil which fosters them. ' ' 
The most sanguine of promoters could not quite ignore 
the fact that the artless Indians had within the last two 
years made South Carolina as little as possible like Para- 
dise. Even Montgomery admits that the "unformidable 
Indians" have taken advantage of the undefended position 
of some isolated communities ; but he will avoid that danger 
by enclosing his settlements within military lines. The 
defense of each district is to be entrusted to men who will 
employ their odd moments in Indian warfare, and the 
greater part of their time in cultivating the land just within 
the outer walls. 35 A plan reveals one district of Azilia in 
the "fulness of her beauty": the one hundred and sixteen 
squares, each with its little house, the city at the centre, 
the four large parks, the hunters shooting game, the laborers 
peacefully at work, and the guns trained upon possible 
Indians somewhere outside of the picture, — all combine to 
create a most pleasant impression of Azilia. 

35 There were to be no " dangerous Blackamoors ' ' admitted into 
the colony; laborers were to go over on a contract, and to receive a 
gift of land upon the expiration of their term 1 of service. The 
experiment of doing without slave labor was of course tried during 
the early years of the colony of Georgia. 



hill's projects 53 

Sir Robert offered land in the new province at forty 
shillings an acre. The purchasers became in effect share- 
holders, who received the profits of the land as dividends ; 
and upon the least breach of Sir Robert's contract with 
them, they were empowered to take possession of the 
province. Subscribers were found on these terms, for in 
February, 1718, Sir Robert stated that he had already 
raised thirty thousand pounds among his friends. 

But a more unpromising moment for the execution of the 
scheme could scarcely have been found. The Proprietary 
Government was already tottering. The Proprietors had 
recently been forced to admit their inability to defend the 
province against Indian and Spanish attacks, and the 
colonists had appealed to the king for help. The Crown 
was jealously watching for an opportunity to assume con- 
trol. In so delicate a situation, the Proprietors felt it ad- 
visable to have the royal approval of their grant to Sir 
Robert Montgomery, and accordingly, in July, 1717, they 
submitted it to the king. He referred the matter to the 
Lords Commissioners for Trade, and they in due time con- 
sulted the Attorney General. It was his opinion that there 
was nothing prejudicial to the interests of the Crown in 
the grant, but he doubted whether the powers of govern- 
ment possessed by the Proprietors could be divided by them 
so as to exempt the new province from liability to the laws 
of South Carolina. A month later (April, 1718), a repre- 
sentation to the king, signed by Charles Cooke and three 
others, suggested that the Proprietors surrender their 
powers of government over the new province to the king, 
who could then appoint Montgomery governor. This they 
were apparently unwilling to do, and the scheme lan- 
guished. 36 

36 The Collections of the Historical Society of South Carolina con- 
tains lists and abstracts of the papers relating to South Carolina in 



54 AARON HILL 

A few months later, Sir Robert, having discovered that 
the protection of his colony from the '"poor unskilful 
natives of America ' ' would put him to greater expense than 
he had anticipated, petitioned the king to grant a lottery 
under the Scotch seal, to provide him with funds. The 
Attorney General, to whom the petition was referred, 
agreed with Sir Robert that the act against lotteries in Eng- 
land was probably not binding in Scotland, since it had 
been passed prior to the Union. 37 But the request was ap- 
parently denied. 3S 

The next news of Azilia is that Hill has purchased the 
grant. "It is sometime," he writes in 1718, 39 to some un- 
named influential lord, "since I became concerned with 
Sir Robert Montgomery and some other gentlemen in a 
design to settle a new plantation of his Majesty's subjects 
to the south of Carolina; the whole intent of which will be 
justly apprehended by your lordship, on perusal of the en- 
closed little treatise, which Sir Robert made public, with 
less success than he expected; upon which, and some other 
views which fell in his way, he declined any further en- 
deavors for advancement of the colony proposed; and I 

the old State Paper Office at London. The progress of Montgomery 's 
scheme may be traced in the following references: I, 189; II, 232, 
234, 255, 256. For the situation in the province at this time see 
E. MeCrady: Hist, of South Carolina under the Proprietary Gov. 
1670-1719, 575 f. 

37 The date of the document quoted in A Description of the Golden 
Islands (1720) is November 15; as reference is made in it to the ap- 
proval of Sir Kobert's scheme by the Board of Trade, and as their 
approval was expressed in February, 1718, the year is probably 1718. 

38 The plan was to draw out 100,000 tickets, at 40' shillings apiece; 
the fund was to be kept by some bank or society of general credit, 
and a deduction of not more than 15 per cent, to be made on all prizes 
and applied to the Azilia scheme. The lottery was to be drawn in 
Edinburgh. 

30 Worl-s, 1753, II, 187 f. 



hill's projects 55 

bought his grant of him with a firm resolution to pursue 
the design by myself." He goes on to explain how, in a 
recent attempt "to improve one of our natural advantages, 
... I erred in the choice of my means, and met with dis- 
appointments which have made it necessary (for the sake 
of my family) that I endeavor to repair a large breach in 
my fortune ; and I would do it, if possible, the noblest way, 
by owing any future prosperity of mine to some benefit I 
procure to my country." He points out some of the pros- 
pective benefits : the English trade with Spain is threatened 
by the attempts of the French to establish communication 
between the Lakes and the Gulf ; they already have a colony 
on the G-ulf and a chain of forts along the Mississippi; 
through this midland channel they will be able to reach 
the Spanish market, and it will then be vain to exclude them 
from the South Sea trade. Since the grant permits an 
indefinite extension of the boundaries to the south and west, 
Hill suggests that a settlement be established, for the 
purpose of watching the designs of the French, somewhere 
on the river of "Apalachia." 40 To meet the expense of 
equipping the five hundred men needed for such an expedi- 
tion, Hill appeals — in almost the precise terms of Mont- 
gomery's petition — for the privilege of a lottery under the 
Scotch seal. Will his lordship use his influence? Hill's 
appeal had no more success than Montgomery's. The 
reason for their failure is perhaps sufficiently explained by 
a passage in Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, 41 under 

40 Hill evidently means the river Appalachicola, or one of its tribu- 
taries, flowing into the Gulf. On the map, his plan of sending his 
colonists by land from the Alatamaha to an upper branch of this 
waterway looks feasible enough; but the character of the country — 
whether swampy or heavily wooded or otherwise difficult of passage — 
probably did not enter into his calculations much more than did danger 
from the Indians. 

4i III, 63. 



56 AARON HILL 

the year 1718 : ' ' The selling or buying of chances and parts 
of chances of tickets in the state lotteries of Great Britain 
being at this time in general practise, a clause in an act of 
Parliament for continuing certain duties on coals and culm, 
etc., prohibited such practises; and also all undertakings 
resembling lotteries, or being on the footing of a state 
lottery, were strictly prohibited under the penalty of 100 
pounds over and above all penalties enjoined by former 
acts of Parliament against private lotteries." In other 
words, just when the necessities of Azilia demanded a 
lottery, the laws against the practice were made more 
stringent. 

There must have been conditions attached to Hill's pur- 
chase which were not fulfilled; for when Azilia reappears, 
it is Sir Robert's name that is still connected with the 
grant. 4 - To the dream of a Paradise on the mainland suc- 
ceeded a vision, no less entrancing, of the Golden Islands — 
a vision seen by both Montgomery and Hill in the Bubble 
year. In October, 1720, shortly after the South Sea crash, 
appeared a pamphlet entitled, A Description of the Golden 
Islands, with an Account of the Undertaking now on foot 
for making a Settlement there. 4 * The gentlemen con- 
cerned in the undertaking, declares the pamphlet, published 
these sheets to distinguish themselves from "that shadowy 
tribe of Nothings, now lately deceased"; and they have 
purposely delayed publication till this moment, "when 
nothing would choose to appear that could not depend on 
its stability. They never proposed to support their under- 

42 Probably no complete purchase was effected. Sir Kobert, in a 
temporary fit of discouragement, may have made some arrangements 
with Hill about the grant that gave Hill a greater interest in it than 
before, but did not go so far as an unconditional purchase. I have 
not found any letters or other documents that explain the situation 
more definitely. 

43 It was advertised in the Post Boy, October 22, 1720. 



hill's projects 57 

taking by the feeble arts of the Alley, having established it 
on so solid and lasting a foundation, that they have nothing 
to hope or fear from the rise and fall of opinions." 

The pamphlet is doubtfully ascribed to Colonel John 
Barnwell, who was sent to England to secure from the 
Crown confirmation of the acts of the Convention that, in 
December, 1719, had overthrown the Proprietary govern- 
ment in South Carolina. He seems, however, to have 
assisted the Proprietors with information, 44 and in the 
pamphlet he asserts their right to make grants of land. 
Sir Robert's grant is quoted — with the judicious omission 
of the provision that a settlement must be made within 
three years; 45 and the new plan is outlined. On May 3, 
1720, according to the account, Sir Robert sold the Golden 
Islands in 1,000 allotments of 100 acres each, at 20 
shillings an acre ; the land was conveyed to the purchasers 
in due form of law by a general indenture, but the money 
was not conveyed to Sir Robert — it was merely subject 
to call. The islands lay four or five miles off the coast 
of Azilia. " As to the four islands which you have assigned 
to the purchasers who are concerned in your settlement," 
writes Barnwell to Montgomery, from the Carolina Coffee 
House, "they are called St. Simon, Sapella, St. Caterina, 
and Ogeche, to which last before I came thence I left 
the name of Montgomery. You have given them a gen- 
eral denomination, which I think they may well deserve, 
of the Golden Islands, for as to convenient pasture, pleasant 
situation, profitable fishery and fowling, they surpass any- 
thing of that kind in all Carolina." The islands are safe 
from Indians; thousands of acres are already cleared; the 

44 See McCrady, Hist, of South Carolina under the Proprietary Gov., 
575. 

45 The Proprietors were probably willing to overlook the provision, 
for the sake of having the grant in the hands of persons friendly to 
their claims. 



58 AAEON HILL 

trustees are completing the arrangements to ship an expedi- 
tion to make the first settlement on St. Caterina ; the labor- 
ers are to be also the defenders of the colony. As an in- 
ducement to gentlemen in England and America to settle 
in the Golden Islands, the trustees offer free grants of land 
at a rental of one-fifth of the produce ; and announce their 
intention of establishing a fund to buy all sorts of com- 
modities from the planters at certain fixed prices. The 
Crown has granted a free entry for seven years to silk, 
wine, raisins, wax, almonds, oil, and olives. 

Of this enterprise Hill was treasurer, if the authority of 
a pamphlet published some years later may be trusted. 46 
The author, referring to Hill's record as a projector, says 
scornfully : ' ' I own he may carry on such another trade as 
he did formerly, from his office in Scotland Yard, to the 
Margravate of Azilia, when he acted as Treasurer to the 
Golden Islands." The title has very pleasing fairyland 
suggestions. In a world of facts, the whole scheme was 
doomed to failure : its promoters trusted in lotteries at a 
moment when lotteries were frowned on by the authorities ; 
they chose a year of unparalleled financial disaster for their 
final attempt; and they relied on the support of a pro- 
prietary government that had actually perished. Only a 
few weeks before their pamphlet appeared, a royal governor 
had been sent to South Carolina; and it required eight 
years for the satisfactory adjustment of the claims of the 
Proprietors themselves. 47 Hill greeted the successful 
colonization of Georgia in 1732 with a little "sally" of 

46 B. M. 8223, a. 44, 1-7 (1728). 

4 7 Even after the Proprietors had surrendered to the Crown, and 
the colony of Georgia was founded, certain persons who had sub- 
scribed to Montgomery 's scheme in 1720 claimed land under his grant. 
Their contention that the grant was not void rested on a technicality. 
See Col. of the Hist. Soc. of South Carolina, II, 139. 



hill's projects 59 

verse; the ''universal benevolence" of the trustees com- 
manded his admiration. 48 

It is difficult to believe that the business of the Golden 
Islands absorbed all of Hill's energy in the Bubble year. 
He may possibly have had some interest in several of the 
schemes that were brought to an end by the scire facias of 
the South Sea Company in August. One was for beech- 
oil — "Aaron Hill's project" — and others for making china- 
ware and for supplying London with coal. 49 He must 
surely have been one of the busiest members of the crowd 
in Exchange Alley ; but beyond the connection of his name 
with beech-oil and the Golden Islands, I have found no 
record of his activity there. 50 

It may be that in this year Hill first became interested in 
the company that offered him his next opportunity to be 
useful; his acquaintance with Colonel Horsey, one of its 
most prominent members, goes back at least to January, 
1722. Probably he was compelled by impaired fortune, or 
by the discredit the failure of earlier projects had brought 
upon his individual enterprises, to play a subordinate role 
in those financed and managed by others. But subordinate 
as it was, none of his roles was more picturesque than that 
of agent for the York Buildings Company, and no com- 
pany of that time had a more curious and chequered career. 

Incorporated in 1691 for the modest purpose of supply- 
ing the neighborhood of Piccadilly and St. James's with 
Thames water, the Governor and Company of Undertakers 
led a useful and respectable existence for nearly thirty 

48 Forster MSS. folio XVI. The poem is in his WorTcs, 1753, IV, 152. 

49 Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, III, 96. 

so Carolina was in danger of being sold outright by its Proprietors 
for 250,000 pounds, to a joint-stock company, in June, 1720. The 
account is in McCrady, Hist, of South Carolina, etc., 669 f. The 
Carolinians were not pleased at the idea of being bought and sold in 
Exchange Alley. 



60 AARON HILL 

years. Then, in 1719, a certain Mr. Case Billingsley, 51 
solicitor and projector, discovered the possibilities of a 
clause in their charter, empowering them to purchase lands ; 
the great estates in Scotland and the north of England, for- 
feited by the rebels in the uprising of 1715, were for sale. 52 
Why not improve the water-works by the acquisition of 
land? In March, 1719, the water-works were on the 
market; in October, the stock was transferred to Mr. 
Billingsley, his partner, James Bradley, and others, for 
7,000 pounds; and a few days later, a subscription was 
opened to raise a fund of 1,200,000 pounds to purchase 
forfeited and other estates in Great Britain. Subscribers 
were to receive annuities of some sort ; for by an act passed 
in 1719, the purchasers of forfeited estates might grant rent 
charges or annuities to the extent of the yearly value. The 
whole amount was at once subscribed, and 59,575 pounds 

si Mr. Billingsley was credited with being the contriver of the Har- 
burg Lottery, which formed the subject of Parliamentary inquiry in 
1723. He printed the tickets and kept them in the York Buildings 
House. Parliament resolved that it was an infamous and fraudulent 
undertaking. See Cobbett's Parliamentary Hist, of Eng., VIII, 62 f. 
The St. James's Journal, March 9, 1723, notes that Mr. Case Billings- 
ley has retired from Holland to remoter parts. 

52 The government had had much trouble over these estates. "When 
the thirteen Commissioners (among the six for Scotland was Sir 
Richard Steele) tried to take possession they became involved in 
difficulties: claims made by creditors of the estates were used as 
blinds in the interest of the families of the rebels; many of the 
factors, nominated by the creditors and appointed by the Court of 
County Sessions, were in reality agents of the banished owners; 
claimants sprang up, with conveyances apparently executed before 
the rebellion in favor of minors; the Commissioners and the Lords 
of Sessions constantly disagreed. In 1717, the government passed a 
statute vesting the estates in the Commissioners to be sold at auction, 
and by 1719-1720 they were ready for sale. But there was little 
money in Scotland. In financial difficulties the age turned naturally 
to a joint-stock company for relief. Hence the opportunity of Mr. 
Case Billingsley. 



hill's projects 61 

added the next month; the ten-pound shares were soon 
selling at 305, and 10 per cent, dividends were promised. 
The purchase of estates, begun on October 6, 1719, con- 
tinued into the following year, to the total amount of 308,- 
913 pounds. When the South Sea Company secured its 
writ against the York Buildings Company and others (Au- 
gust 18, 1720), the stock fell from 300 to 200, and two days 
later had no buyers. The Commentator of September 5 
jocularly explained that the company had not "broken in 
upon the true intent and meaning of their charter, who in 
the power of raising Thames water three story high, had, 
no question, a power to raise a bubble to 300 per cent. For 
bubble making in itself is a kind of water-work in its 
original." But the same paper, a week later, 53 removed 
the company from the list of bubbles, with apologies, hav- 
ing learned that on the threat of government proceedings 
it had returned to regular methods of raising money by 
call. 

To follow in detail the history of the company for the 
next five years, until Hill comes into the story, is unneces- 
sary. 54 Their financial transactions in London were as un- 
sound as their management of the estates in Scotland was 
inefficient. One board of managers after another, infected 
with the evil principles of the Bubble year, gambled with 
the capital. Money was raised in all possible ways — by 
calls on the proprietors, transfers of nominal stock, and 
even lotteries ; 55 and the only result was an annual shortage 

ss No. 73. 

s* A very interesting account, fully supplied with all the technical 
details of high finance in the eighteenth century, is that by David 
Murray, The YorJc Buildings Company: a Chapter in Scotch History, 
Glasgow, 1883. Much of the material used here is taken from this 
book. 

55 Lotteries, all partial failures, were drawn in August, 1721, 
February, 1722, and in 1723. To give a deceitful appearance of 
value to the stock, seven half-yearly dividends were declared between 
1721 and 1724, and paid out of the capital. 



62 AARON HILL 

of four thousand pounds. Their Scotch estates, in Aber- 
deen, Perth, Forfar, Berwick, Stirling, and elsewhere, were 
almost totally uncultivated, and full of swamp and waste 
land ; drainage was unknown ; fertilizing nearly so ; agricul- 
tural implements were primitive — wooden ploughs, for 
example, and wooden mallets for breaking clods; and the 
chief crops were bere and oats. Rentals were paid in kind, 
— in hens, butter, peas, meal, geese, and wool. Add to these 
primitive conditions on the estates the incredibly bad 
roads, 56 the unpopularity of the company (which inherited 
the prejudice against the Commissioners), and the debts 
upon all the estates (which the company also inherited), 
and it is evident that the chances of profit, even with the 
best of management, were small. 

In spite of its difficulties, this task of managing extensive 
estates all over Scotland and Northumbria — not to mention 
that other duty of furnishing water to the inhabitants of 
the West End— did not afford sufficient outlet for the 
energies of the governor and his six assistants. 57 In 1727, 
Colonel Samuel Horsey, then governor, made a proposal 
for importing timber, masts, marble, and "other commodi- 
ties of the natural growth of Scotland." 58 The idea was 
not entirely new. Captain Edward Burt, writing about 

5 6 It took eight days to travel the 170 miles between Edinburgh and 
Eoss-shire. 

57 An effort was made to improve the water-works: in 1725 a real 
fire-engine was installed — a very noisy and smoky one, according to a 
contemporary account — which proved too expensive, and was replaced 
after three years by horse-power. The account of the engine, The 
York Buildings Dragon, is reprinted in the appendix of T. Wright's 
England under the Souse of Hanover, 1848. 

58 Colonel Horsey was waiting for the confirmation of his appoint- 
ment by the Proprietors as governor of South Carolina. For two 
years or more (1725-1727), there is a recoTd of delays, petitions, and 
memorials for and against the right of the Proprietors to appoint a 
governor. Col. Hist. Soc. of South Carolina, I, 172. 



hill's projects 63 

1729, says: 59 "I remember to have heard, a good while ago, 
that in the time when Prince George of Denmark was lord- 
high-admiral of England, some Scots gentlemen represented 
to him that Scotland could furnish the navy with as good 
timber for masts and other uses as either Sweden or 
Norway could do, 60 and at a much more reasonable rate." 
Two surveyors were sent up at that time, and, after a 
narrow escape from hanging at the hands of a Highland 
chieftain who cared nothing for credentials from Prince 
George, they did survey the woods ; but nothing further was 
done. 

The real author of Colonel Horsey 's proposal was Hill, 
who had found a place for Scotch timber in his poem to 
Harley in 1714. Even before the governor submitted the 
plan to the company, he had evidently come to some agree- 
ment with Hill: "Mr. Hill has finished his affair," wrote 
Savage to Mallet, on August 15, 1726, 61 "and by disposing 
of it to a company, has secured a hundred thousand pounds 
for himself. On Friday was s'ennight he set out in his 
own coach and six to Scotland, with his wife, and his 
mother-in-law accompanied him in her chariot. ' ' The coach 
and six may be accepted on Savage's authority, but it is 
impossible that anyone — least of all Hill — could secure a 
hundred thousand pounds from the York Buildings Com- 
pany. Another letter, 62 in October, refers to Hill's arrival 
at Berwick, his intended tour, and halt at Inverness. The 
appearance of his coach probably made a sensation in Inver- 

59 Letters, 5th ed., II, 152. Burt was a surveyor and engineer, 
engaged in laying out roads in the Highlands — a work begun by 
Marshall Wade about 1726. 

eo The Tar Company of Sweden had practically a monopoly of ship 
supplies. Parliament, about 1704, tried with little success to encour- 
age the making of tar, hemp, etc., in the Colonies. Cunningham, 
Growth of English Industry, etc., Part I, 485 f. 

6i Quoted in G. C. Macaulay's Thomson, 18, note 1. 

62 Thomson to Hill, October 20, 1726. 



64 AAEON HILL 

ness, where the tiny carts, drawn by diminutive horses, had 
wheels formed of three pieces of plank. "The description 
of these puny vehicles," wrote Captain Burt, "brings to 
my memory how I was entertained with the surprise and 
amusement of the common people in this town, when, in the 
year 1725, a chariot with six monstrous great horses arrived 
here by way of the seacoast. An elephant, publicly exposed 
in one of the streets of London, could not have excited 
greater admiration. One asked what the chariot was; 
another, who had seen the gentleman alight, told the first, 
with a sneer at his ignorance, it was a great cart to carry 
people in and such like." 63 

During his visit of several months, 64 Hill did more than 
merely inspect the timber. " Is it not true, ' ' wrote a gentle- 
man at Edinburgh in 1728, 65 "that Aaron Hill, Esq., with 
the advice, concurrence, and assistance not only of the com- 
pany, but likewise of Messieurs John Essington and James 
Crisp of Wansworth, sent by a ship to Inverness all utensils 
for cutting and clearing of wood, with copper kettles and 
other things needful for boiling and extracting the salt out 
of the ashes, and came himself last year to our woods in the 
north, and having examined the same, did burn a consider- 
able quantity of wood, in order to make Russian potash; 
and upon his failing to perform the same, gave out, con- 
trary to all expectation, that our wood wanted salt. ... By 
this imaginary project was there not a very considerable 
sum sunk?" 

63 Letters, I, 77. 

64 Hill was back in London in March, 1727 ; a letter from Thom- 
son of March 4 refers to his return (Col. of 1751). 

65 ' ' Letter from a gentleman at Edinburgh to his friend at Lon- 
don," B.M. 8223. d. 7. The Londoner had sent to his friend the 
Daily Post of November 21, 1727, which contained abstracts of the 
proceedings of the two general courts of the company, held, in August 
and November, 1727, and had asked his opinion of the company. 



hill's projects 65 

Though the potash experiment failed, Hill was so de- 
lighted with the woods that he wrote to Colonel Horsey 
recommending the acquisition of the timber, and on his re- 
turn to London urged it on him as a certain source of 
wealth. It was then that Horsey proposed it to the com- 
pany. "But as Hill's name, it was thought, would not be 
acceptable to the shareholders, Thomas Fordyce and Mr. 
Adam, the Company's agents in Scotland, were put for- 
ward as the proposers." 66 According to the abstract of 
the governor's report to the general courts of the company, 
held in August and November, 1727, 67 the woods were 
capable of supplying the entire demand of the kingdom for 
great and small timber, even to masts for the first-rate ships 
of the navy; a hundred shiploads a year for twenty years 
might be taken from the famous Abernethy woods alone ; 
and these woods were conveniently situated near the most 
navigable river in Scotland — the Spey. Best of all, the 
Admiralty was willing to buy from the company the masts 
and yards for the navy. 68 The result of these representa- 
tions was that in January, 1728, sixty thousand fir trees 
were purchased. 69 To secure funds, the court determined 

ee Murray, Yorlc Buildings Co., 57. 

67 B.M. 8223. d. 44. 

es < < As their Act of Parliament made no reference to importing 
masts and marble, the company solicited, and by a due expenditure in 
gratuities and presents obtained (August 21, 1728) a royal licence 'to 
trade in goods, wares, and merchandise of the growth and produce of 
that part of the kingdom.' " Murray, York Buildings Co., 58. See 
also Macpherson, III, 145, under the year 1728 : " A premium is also 
enacted for the importation of masts, yards, and bowsprits from 
Scotland, where . . . there are in sundry parts great store of pine 
and fir trees." 

69 The trees were purchased at the rate of 2/4 a tree ; Francis 
Place, who surveyed the woods in April, 1733, said that 20,000 trees 
worth that price had been cut down, that 10,000 more still standing 
were of the same value, but the remaining 30,000 were worth no more 



66 AARON HILL 

to revive 200,000 pounds of a nominal stock of 600,000 
pounds, which had been annihilated by an earlier order 
of the court in 1725 ; and the proposers of the scheme were 
to have the privilege of taking this up at 10 per cent., to be 
paid for as fast as money was needed in the trade. The 
apportionment caused squabbling: Hill demanded 16,000 
pounds; but "after claiming personally and 'through one 
Mrs. Blunt,' he agreed to take 8,000, in discharge of which 
he got 6,800 pounds stock of the company." 70 This trans- 
action is noticed by the questioning gentleman at Edinburgh 
already quoted : " Is it not true that 200,000 pounds stock 
was transferred by the company to one or two at London, 
and that he or they sold so much thereof as repaid what 
Mr. Hill's friends had advanced for satisfying the com- 
pany's exigencies mentioned in the above-named second 
general court, and likewise for raising money to carry on 
the project of trees for masts?" 

After this settlement, Hill set out once more for Scotland, 
probably in the spring of 1728, and was received with high 
honors. The Duke and Duchess of Gordon "distinguished 
him with great civilities, ' ' and the magistrates of Inverness 
presented him with the freedom of the city "at an elegant 
entertainment made by them on that occasion." 71 On 
August 18, he wrote to his wife "from the Golden Groves 
of Abernethy" 7 - that he had everything settled to his satis- 
faction; "the shore of the Spey, for a mile or two together 
along our meadow, is all covered with masts, from fifty to 
seventy feet long, which they are daily bringing out of the 
wood, with ten carriages and above a hundred horses; and 
[they] bring down from forty to fifty trees a day, one day 

than /6 a tree (Murray, 57, quoted from the House of Commons 
Journals). 

70 Murray, York Buildings Co., 63. 

7iCibber's Lives, V, 265. 

" Works, 1754, I, 47 f. 



hill's projects 67 

with another. In the middle of the river lie at anchor a 
little float of our rafts, which are just putting off for Find- 
horn harbor ; and it is one of the pleasantest sights possible 
to observe the little armies of men, women, and children, 
who pour down from the Highlands, to stare at what we 
have been doing. Colonel Horsey came hither, on "Wednes- 
day last, and is in such raptures at what he sees and hears, 
that he scarce knows whether he walks on his head or his 
heels." 73 The Highlanders had good reason to stare at 
Hill's operations, for they were without precedent in that 
region. The former owners of the woods had been ac- 
customed to float their timber down in single logs or lots 
loosely huddled together, attended by men in a currach — a 
small wicker basket covered with ox-hides. 74 Rafting was 
unknown until Hill introduced it. "When the trees were 
by his order chained together into floats, the ignorant High- 
landers refused to venture themselves on them down the 
river Spey, till he first went himself, to make them sensible 
there was no danger. . . . He found a great obstacle in the 
rocks, by which the river seemed impassible ; but on these he 
ordered fires to be made, when by the lowness of the river 
they were most exposed, and then had quantities of water 
thrown upon them ; which method being repeated, with the 
help of proper tools they were broken in pieces and thrown 
down, which made the passage easy for the floats. ' ' 75 The 

"3 The base of the timber operations was at Culnakyle, twenty-five 
miles up the Spey from Garmouth; the logs were floated down to 
Garmouth, and then conveyed by rafts to Findhorn, a little distance 
down the coast ; there the ships loaded. The building of a new harbor 
was projected, because that of Findhorn was not safe, and the passage 
from Garmouth was hazardous. William Stephens, who was appointed 
agent for the company in December, 1728, and arrived at Culnakyle in 
April, 1729, corroborates several of the details in Hill's letter. See 
The Castle Builder, or the History of William Stephens, etc., 1759, 
60 f. 

7 * Murray, York Buildings Co., 60. 

75Cibber's Lives, V. 265. 



68 AARON HILL 

country people soon learned this new means of transport, 
and floated down the river with their butter, cheese, skins, 
and bark. 

Towards the end of September, Hill was still in the High- 
lands. "Nothing should have prevailed with me to have 
spent so much time here," he wrote to his wife, 76 "but the 
glorious prospect of the company's certain advantage, and 
the fear I had, if anything should be left unregulated, that 
the silly malice of some wicked spirits in Exchange Alley 
would have made an ill use of it, to the stock's disad- 
vantage." On the first of October, he set out on his re- 
turn, 77 ' ' having left everything in the north on the happiest 
and most flourishing foot in the world." 78 An unex- 
pectedly long stay in the neighborhood of York, where his 
wife then was, "had like to have proved of unhappy con- 
sequence, by giving room for some, who imagined (as they 
wished) that he would not return, to be guilty of a breach 
of trust that aimed at the destruction of a great part of 
what he was worth; but they were disappointed." 79 Just 
what this breach of trust was is not explained. 

How, meanwhile, was the enterprise regarded by others ? 
Burt, an experienced engineer, doubted whether it would 
pay to remove the wood over bogs, precipices, and rocky 
rivers. 80 At the very time when Horsey was pictured by 

™ Sept. 20, 1728. Works, 1754, I, 50. 

77 Letter to his wife from Dundee, October 8, Works, 1754, I, 51. 

78 Hill left memorials of his visit on various window panes. Burt 
observed "at the first stage on this side Berwick, a good deal of 
scribbling upon a window"; among the lines were those of Hill on 
the weather in Scotland. "By the two initial letters of a name, I 
soon concluded it was your neighbor, Mr. Aaron Hill, but wondered 
at his manner of taking leave of this country, after he had been so 
exceedingly complaisant to it, when here, as to compare its subter- 
raneous riches with those of Mexico." Letters, I, 181. 

70 Cibber 's Lives, V, 265. 
so Letters, I, 283. 



hill's projects 69 

Hill in a state of delirious rapture, a significant advertise- 
ment appeared in Mist's Weekly Journal 81 of a company to 
be formed for furnishing naval stores from the plantations, 
"there being no likelihood of the York Builders doing it 
from Scotland," but this positive statement may have 
represented merely the wish of a rival projector. While 
Hill was yet in the country, the doubting Edinburgh gentle- 
man expressed views at variance with Hill's: 82 the harbor 
at Garmouth, he is told by a friend living on Spey-side, is 
dry at low tide and only six or seven feet deep at high tide, 
and is open to storms ; after heavy rains, the current of the 
river is so rapid that trees cannot be stopped from rushing 
into the ocean ; it required seven weeks to bring down sixty 
small trees to Garmouth, though over a score of men worked 
daily; "there is not one tree in their wood of proper 
dimensions for a bowsprit to a first-rate," and as for the 
harbor, it is indeed secure — "so secure that no ship that 
can stow trees can reach it, for sands, and shingles. ' ' This 
was probably among certain "lying papers" that Mrs. Hill 
told her husband about ; he thanked her and added that the 
directors had sent him a dozen or more "such monstrous 
mixtures of folly, falsehood, and impudence; the magis- 
trates of Edinburgh have thought fit to make a public 
example of some who distributed them in this country." 83 
They may really have been malicious and at least partly 
false, for a specimen cargo that was cut and sent to London 
was reported, by the master mast-maker at Deptford, to be 
of excellent quality. But it was a fact that there were no 
trees fit for masts for first-rates; Hill unquestionably saw 
taller trees on Speyside than were really there. 

Though William Stephens, the agent sent to Abernethy 

si August 24, 1728. 

82 B.M. 8223. d. 44. 1-7. 

83 Works, 1754, I ; 50. 



70 AARON HILL 

at the end of 1728, developed the plank and deal board 
trade with some success, yet in four years the charges ex- 
ceeded the returns by nearly 28,000 pounds. "Well might 
the Reverend Mr. John Grant, the parish minister, say 
of them : 'the most profuse and profligate set that ever were 
heard of in this corner. . . . This was said to be a stock- 
jobbing business. Their extravagancies of every kind 
ruined themselves and corrupted others. Their beginning 
was great indeed, with 120 working horses, waggons, elegant 
temporary wooden houses, saw-mills, iron-mills, and every 
kind of implement and apparatus of the best and most ex- 
pensive sorts. They used to display their vanity by bon- 
fires, tar-barrels, and opening hogsheads of brandy to the 
country people, by which five of them died in one night. 
They had a commissary for provisions and forage at a hand- 
some salary, and in the end went off in debt to the pro- 
prietors of the country. But yet their coming . . . was 
beneficial in many respects, for besides the knowledge and 
skill which was acquired from them, they made many useful 
and lasting improvements. 84 They made roads through the 
woods. They erected proper saw-mills. They invented the 
construction of the raft as it is at present, and cut a passage 
through a rock in Spey, without which floating to any 
extent could never be attempted.' " 85 The death knell of 
the timber project was sounded in July, 1730, when the 
general court of the company, after considering Hill's claim 
to a part of the 200,000 pounds stock at 10 per cent, "as a 
reward for the timber scheme," resolved "that the timber 
scheme had not in any point answered the expectations of 

84 Hill tells his wife (Works, 1754, I, 53) that "Adam and Eve 
in the wilderness lay in just such houses as the Highlanders — only I 
believe they were not altogether so dirty." 

ss Murray, York Buildings Co., 61 ; quoted from Old Stat. Acct., 
XIII, 133. 



hill's projects 71 

the company, from the character given by the proposers, and 
that they had no title to the stock." 86 

A brief summary of the later career of the company — too 
interesting to be entirely passed over — will explain why 
Hill, who still had some share in the stock, was by turns 
hopeful of profit and dismally conscious of loss. 87 From 
timber the company turned to iron ; by 1732, the debit on 
the enterprise was nearly 7,000 pounds. Their coal works 
and salt-pans at Tranent were equally unsuccessful; and 
their glass works resulted in a loss of over 4,000 pounds. 
They next tried lead and copper mining, and leased the 
mines at a ruinous rental from Sir Archibald Grant and 
others, who were interested in the "Charitable Corporation 
for the Relief of the Industrious Poor," which lent small 
sums upon pledges. Their interest for several years had 
taken the form of treating themselves as industrious poor, 
and borrowing the money of their Corporation on sham 

se Ibid., 63, note. 

8T See letter to Victor, April 9, 1733 (Victor's Hist, of the Theatres, 
II, 192) : Hill states that he has 8,000 pounds in York Buildings 
Company bonds, though he could make only 3,000 if he were to sell 
them. In July, 1738, Colonel Horsey was appointed governor of South 
Carolina {Col. Hist. Soc. of South Carolina, II, 269). He had been 
turned out of the York Buildings Company in 1733, and sued by the 
company in 1735. Hill's letter to his daughter, of June 23, 1737 
{Worlcs, 1754, I, 335), refers to the South Carolina appointment as 
possible : "As soon as it is confirmed, . . . then Mr. Stanlake may go 
to him, and insist on an assignment from his salary for regular pay- 
ment (not of the debt, for that he can't yet do) but of the current 
yearly interest. And let him, if he can, include the interest on my 
long arrears; for from 1729 to this day, I have received but 100 
pounds upon the whole, instead of 75 pounds yearly, from the colonel. ' ' 
In a letter to Popple, September 15, 1740 (Works, 1753, II, 67) is 
another reference to Horsey: "What a lottery wheel is this world! 
we have seen it in the melancholy fate of our poor friend Col. Horsey. 
After twenty years unwearied pursuit of one flattering and favorite 
prospect, he had no sooner possessed it . . . than he died." 



72 AARON HILL 

pledges, for purposes of speculation. When on the verge 
of ruin, they decided to lease their mines to the York Build- 
ings Company, in the hope that the transaction would cause 
a rise in York stock, by which they could profit. The 
Corporation finally collapsed; there was a Parliamentary 
inquiry ; and of course the York Builders reaped no benefit 
from the notoriety. The mines, developed with enthusiasm, 
were abandoned in 1740, having proved ruinous to share- 
holders, but beneficial to the country. On the whole, Scot- 
land profited considerably from the operations of the com- 
pany, but no one else did. The details of bond issues and 
reissues, of petitions of creditors, and of Parliamentary 
inquiries, up to the year 1740, when the company finally 
got into Chancery, may be read in David Murray 's account. 
For fifty years more, there were proceedings in the Scotch 
and English courts ; and when the estates were finally sold, 
they had doubled and trebled in value, through the im- 
provements in agriculture. In 1818, only the old water- 
works were left, and these were closed by agreement with 
the New River Company, for an annuity. In 1829, Parlia- 
ment dissolved the company, and divided the proceeds of 
the property among the stockholders. Thus, after a 
troubled and adventurous existence of a century and a half, 
the York Buildings Company ended as quietly and re- 
spectably as it had started, with all its debts ultimately 
discharged by the rise in the price of land. 

Knowledge that the company would become solvent in the 
next century would probably have afforded slight consola- 
tion to Hill for his present losses and disappointments. 
But he could at least reflect with satisfaction, in his seclu- 
sion at Plaistow, that Highlanders were floating comfort- 
ably on their rafts down a navigable Spey ; and to see their 
efforts result in immediate good to the country was given 
to few of the York Builders — their operations were directly 



hill's projects 73 

disastrous and only indirectly and remotely beneficial. Hill 
had now had enough of joint-stock enterprises and was 
ready to keep the resolution he had made prematurely in 
1723, — to have done with all designs he could not execute 
himself. 88 Aside from his experiments with grapes and 
potash at Plaistow, he did not attempt to carry out any 
more of his ideas. Not that he ceased to conceive them ! 
They were always ready for the consideration of those who 
would listen. 

When The Citizen, or the Weekly Conversation of a So- 
ciety of London Merchants on Trade and other Public 
Affairs, was started in February, 1739, Hill intended to 
become a contributor; but whether he really wrote any of 
the score of papers that were published is doubtful. 89 "I 
am asham'd to have been so lazy a Correspondent with 
The Citizen," he wrote Richardson in April of that year; 90 
"tho' it has not altogether proceeded from Laziness, but, 
chiefly, from a Desire to observe, from the Turn of a proper 
Number of Papers, in what Manner, and with what Choice 
of Subjects, Sir William wou'd incline to Distinguish his 
Purpose : that so, I might vary as little as possible from the 
General Aim of the Paper, in any of Those I shou'd send it. 
I perceive it seems fondest of Hints that relate to our Trade, 
and in particular to That of our American Colonies — and I 
believe I cou'd say many Things, that might be fit to be 

ss Hill to Victor, February 21, 1723. (Victor, Mist, of the Theatres, 
II, 171). 

89 They took up such subjects as the Spanish trade, the sugar trade, 
the Carolina boundary question, the smuggling of wool, the need of 
infirmaries and foundling hospitals, the designs of Russia, the decay 
of the drama, etc. The "Sir William" mentioned by Hill was per- 
haps Sir William Keith, who wrote a History of Virginia (London, 
1738), at the instance of the Society for the Encouragement of 
Learning; Richardson was printer and James Thomson secretary of 
the Society. 

oo April 12, 1739. Forster MS. 



74 AARON HILL 

read on those Subjects." War and armies, as well as trade, 
occupied his thoughts. He gave Lord Chesterfield the op- 
portunity of stamping out a prevalent army disease by a 
very simple remedy; 91 and he presented a Lord of the 
Admiralty with an ingenious scheme for blocking the coast 
against Spain. 02 It is to be regretted that his "tract of 
new improvements in the art of war," a piece "very full of 
novelty," remained unpublished; in the form in which he 
intended to present it, it might have been worth reading: 
' ' Would it not be better, ' ' he asks Richardson, ' ' instead of 
a dry dissertation on what might be done in arms, to present 
it to the entertained imagination as what had already been; 
laying the scene at some pretended time, in some imaginary 
country ; and uniting, in a lively story, all the use, surprise, 
and pleasure of historical narration, filled with warlike and 
political events, of a new turn and species, to the active 
demonstration of a theory that else might pass for project 
only?" 93 He had by this time (1748) arrived at a fine 
contempt for the practical. "How preferable," he ex- 
claims, ' ' to whole lives of mill-horse rounds in practical con- 
tractions, an extended theory may be ! " 

Though the projecting spirit could exercise itself only in 
"obstinate meditation" during these last years of Hill's 
life, its triumph over sickness, repeated disappointments, 
and misfortune is impressive. It would be hard to find — 
among literary men, at least, — a more complete embodi- 
ment of that spirit than Hill. Steele had his Fish-pool 
scheme, Gay speculated in South Sea stock, and Bishop 
Berkeley planned a college in the Bermudas. But Hill's 
activity embraced the invention of machinery, the search 

9i Hill to Chesterfield, Worls, 1753, II, 321 (1747). 
02 WorTcs, II, 25. 

as Hill to Biehardson, November 2, 1748, Biehardson 's Correspond- 
ence, I, 130. 



hill's projects 75 

for new processes of manufacture, the attempt to establish 
new industries, in England and the colonies, the develop- 
ment of unused natural resources, and the founding of new 
settlements. He takes us from Exchange Alley, with all 
its stock- jobbing mysteries, to the Alatamaha, and from the 
Golden Islands to the Golden Groves. And to prove that 
he was no mere dreamer, we have the evidence of the melted 
rocks and the rafts in the Highlands. Into all these 
projects he threw the energy of an ordinary life-time, and 
yet they were only a part of his life. He ardently pursued 
literature in his leisure moments, and after each commercial 
disaster, he returned to the affairs of the stage. Before he 
tried to introduce a new kind of oil, he had really intro- 
duced Handel into England. 



CHAPTER III 

HILL AND THE STAGE 

1709-1723 

Of one niche in literary history Hill is secure : no account 
of 18th century tragedy is complete without a reference to 
his adaptations of Voltaire's plays. Had he done nothing 
else, however, than win this doubtful honor, his dramatic 
achievement would not merit a chapter to itself. No one 
willingly reads the tragedies of Hill's age; and few, except 
as a matter of duty, care to read much about them. But 
this period of the drama, far from noteworthy from the 
purely literary standpoint, was one of great interest in 
other ways: it saw the acting of Betterton and Mrs. Old- 
field and Garrick; the development of opera and panto- 
mime as rivals of comedy and tragedy; and the establish- 
ment by the Licensing Act of a theatrical monopoly that 
for more than a century exercised a profound influence on 
the history of the drama in England. 

The questions discussed by men interested in the stage 
were curiously like those with which we are familiar today. 
We find the management of theatres denounced as in- 
competent and mercenary; the public taste condemned as 
depraved; and the popularity of vulgar farces and cheap 
musical entertainments interpreted by moralists and un- 
successful authors alike as a sure sign of the approaching 
moral degeneration of the race. Has tragedy really ceased 
to have any appeal for the general public? Should the 
public be supplied with what it likes, or what it ought to 
like ? Should there be any censorship of the stage, and how 
76 



HILL AND THE STAGE 77 

should it be exercised? Can a national theatre be estab- 
lished to encourage poetic drama, and managed by disin- 
terested persons who will regard profit as a purely 
secondary consideration? Is opera in English possible? 
All these problems, essentially the same as they are today, 
in spite of their eighteenth century dress, faced the in- 
terested observer of theatrical conditions in Hill's time ; and 
on all of them Hill had very definite opinions. Most of his 
opinions were voiced, with perhaps less energy, by his con- 
temporaries, but a few are peculiarly his. Nor did he con- 
fine himself to vigorous expression of his ideas — he made 
repeated efforts to carry them out. He was not merely 
critic and adviser at large to actors, managers, playwrights, 
and the general public ; he was himself author and manager. 
To follow his activity from 1709 to 1749 is to review almost 
every phase of the theatrical history of the period. 

To make clear the situation in 1709 when Hill first en- 
tered the field, it is necessary to go back to 1662. 1 In that 
year Charles II granted two patents, one to Sir Thomas 
Killigrew for the King's Company at Drury-Lane, and the 
other to Sir William Davenant for the Duke's Company at 
Covent Garden ; all other companies and theatres were sup- 
pressed. In 1682, both companies were so feeble that the 
king merged them ; the salaries of actors were reduced, and 
shares in the patents were sold to speculators or assigned 
by the patentees to others. In 1690, the lawyer Christopher 
Rich secured Davenant 's patent; but he made his manage- 
ment so irksome to a large number of his actors that led by 
the famous Betterton, they laid their grievances before the 
Lord Chamberlain and were granted a license, in 1695, 
under which they built by subscription the New Theatre 
in Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields. They had the support of Con- 

i For the authorities used in this account of the history of the stage, 
see the Bibliography. 



78 AARON HILL 

greve, who wrote Love for Love for the opening of their 
theatre, and who had a share in the company. But Rich 
held his own, with the aid of tumblers, buffoons, and 
singers, until his inexperienced actors (among whom was 
young Colley Cibber) grew sufficiently expert to threaten 
the prestige of Betterton's company. Then Betterton, too, 
had to resort to illegitimate attractions. In 1705, Van- 
brugh opened an opera house in the Haymarket under the 
patronage of the Court, but the acoustics were bad, and the 
opera failed; he joined forces with Betterton, and under 
Betterton's license transferred the actors to the Haymarket ; 
but nothing prospered, and he finally unloaded his burdens 
on a certain Owen McSwiney — apparently an under- 
manager of Rich's. 

Rich, who was suspected of being behind the transaction, 
did not at once get control, however. There were other 
shareholders in his patent, who had come to regard it as 
such a hopeless investment that one of them, Sir Thomas 
Skipwith, gave his share in a jest to Colonel Brett. The 
latter happened to be an enterprising man, with some influ- 
ence over the Lord Chamberlain; he forced himself into 
the management, and effected, about 1708, an agreement 
between the two companies, by which the Haymarket, 
managed by McSwiney, monopolized Italian opera, and 
Drury-Lane, managed by Rich and Brett, kept the plays. 
Skipwith, seeing a chance of profit, repented of his gift and 
took back his property. Rich, at last in complete control 
of the situation, resumed his tyrannical conduct, until he 
again drove his actors to revolt and brought upon himself 
in June, 1709, a silencing mandate. His theatre was closed, 
but his actors were permitted to engage with McSwiney at 
the Haymarket, where both plays and operas were per- 
formed. It is to be noted that not all of the actors were 
hostile to Rich, as Hill found out to his cost later. From 



HILL AND THE STAGE 79 

this date until 1714, the patent remained dormant in the 
hands of Rich. 2 

Then entered on the scene William Collier, M.P., who had 
interest at Court and a share in the sleeping patent. Ad- 
vised that if a shareholder submitted to the Queen and 
waived all right in the patent the Queen would permit him 
to reopen Drury-Lane, he made his submission, secured a 
new lease from the landlord — for Rich held on to the lease 
as well as to the patent — and took forcible possession on 
November 22, 1709. The Tatler tells the story of Rich's 
("Divito's") departure: 3 

"On the 22nd instant, a night of public rejoicing, the 
enemies of Divito made a largess to the people of faggots, 
tubs, and other combustible matter, which was erected into 
a bonfire before the palace. Plentiful cans were at the 
same time distributed among the dependencies of that 
principality ; and the artful rival of Divito observing them 
prepared for enterprise, presented the lawful owner of the 
neighboring edifice, and showed his deputation under him. 
War immediately ensued upon the peaceful empire of Wit 
and the Muses; the Goths and Vandals sacking Rome did 
not threaten a more barbarous devastation of arts and sci- 
ences. But when they had forced their entrance, the ex- 
perienced Divito had detached all his subjects and evacu- 
ated all his stores. The neighboring inhabitants report, 
that the refuse of Divito's followers marched off the night 
before disguised in magnificence ; doorkeepers came out clad 
like cardinals, and scene-drawers like heathen gods. Divito 
himself was wrapped up in one of his black clouds, and 
left to the enemy nothing but an empty stage, full of trap- 
doors, known only to himself and his adherents." Ac- 

2Eich had owned originally only about one-sixth of the patent; 
"yet by obstinate dishonesty, he succeeded in annexing the remain- 
der." Cibber's Apology, ed. Lowe, II, 99, n. 1. 

3 No. 99, November 26, 1709. 



80 AARON HILL 

cordingly, when the theatre opened the next day, the actors 
were without properties or stage clothes. The players 
whom Rich had kept inactive — among them Booth, not yet 
famous, — came over to Collier; but they were secretly in 
Rich's interest. 

Although Collier had successfully engineered this excit- 
ing transaction, he apparently felt his incapacity as stage 
manager. Just why Aaron Hill sought the post, or what 
arguments he used to persuade Collier of his fitness, is not 
clear. Perhaps his influential patrons, Peterborough espe- 
cially, were in themselves an argument, and perhaps his 
schoolfellow Booth suggested the enterprise, just as he sug- 
gested the subject of Hill's first play. At all events, when 
Drury-Lane opened on November 23, 1709, with Auren- 
gezebe, it was under the direction of Hill. His manage- 
ment lasted until June, 1710; its chief events were the 
production of his tragedy, Elf rid, and the trouble with his 
actors that brought it to a close. 

On January 3, 1710, Elf rid, with a farce, also by Hill, called 
The Walking Statue, was performed, and afterwards acted 
five times with moderate success. 4 The ' ' first dramatic sally ' ' 
of his youth, written in less than a fortnight, he later re- 
garded as "an unpruned wilderness of fancy, with here 
and there a flower among the leaves." 5 For all that, he 
tried to preserve the unities — more carefully, perhaps, as he 
says in the preface, than an English audience thinks need- 
ful. This is an interesting admission of the indifference of 
the public to those idols of the critics of the day — the 
unities. The play tells the story of Athelwold, who, sent to 
report to the Saxon king Edgar of the beauty of Elfrid, 

4 In the preface to Elfrid, Hill thanks Steele for trying to persuade 
the actors at the Haymarket — Betterton and the old company were 
acting there under McSwiney's management — to put off the represen- 
tation of his Tender Husband until after the production of Elfrid. 

s Preface to Athelwold, the revised play published in 1731. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 81 

falls so deeply in love with her that he secretly marries her 
himself, and tells the king that she is not worthy of his 
royal notice. The action begins with the unexpected arrival 
of the king at Athelwold's castle; Athelwold is forced to 
explain to Elfrid the deception he has practised, and to 
beg her to allow his less charming sister Ordelia to pose 
as his wife; Elfrid consents, but reluctantly — the thought 
of her narrow escape from the throne does not increase her 
love for her husband. The scheme works very well until 
one of Ordelia 's two lovers — the villain — discovers that the 
king has taken a fancy to Ordelia; to divert the royal 
thoughts into another channel, he reveals the secret, and 
persuades Edgar, angry at the fraud and enraptured with 
a glimpse of Elfrid, to send Athelwold off that night on a 
mission and in his absence win his lady. But they reckoned 
without Athelwold's father's ghost, who -forbids his journey 
and sends him trembling back, to arrive inopportunely just 
when his friend has despatched the villain, and the king is 
emerging from Elfrid 's chamber. Athelwold starts to kill 
the king, but on the appearance of Elfrid makes her the 
victim instead ; he is then slain by the king, who devotes the 
remaining lines of the play to a eulogy of his virtues. 

Elfrid has the merits of comparative brevity and rapid 
action, but the characterization is slight. It is hard to 
resist picking at least one flower from the wilderness of 
fancy: "Peace and rest," says Athelwold to Elfrid, 

" Are woman's gifts to man ; when toils and cares 
Have worn our weary souls, woman, dear woman, 
Is nature's downy pillow of repose." 6 (Act I.) 

c One other flower ought not to be overlooked: 

' ' Women are much to blame who cloak their wishes, 
Perverting modesty from nature's meaning; 
Her end in that bright virtue was to join 
To guiltless freedom artless innocence; 



82 AARON HILL 

There are occasional good lines, however ; such as these from 
Act II. 

"They who fight men fight equal enemies; 
But they who war with conscience meet such odds 
They lose by victory." 

The little farce enjoyed a fair measure of success, and 
was revived half a dozen times during the next twelve 
years. 7 It was probably, as Genest says, more amusing to 
watch than it is to read. In the dedication of Elf rid to the 
Marquis of Kent, Hill declared comedy to be the easiest 
way of pleasing; and perhaps one other play of the season 
— Square Brainless, or Trick upon Trick, performed April 
27, 1710, — was an attempt to demonstrate the theory. The 
editor of the Biographia Dramatica states that it was 
written by Aaron Hill, never published, and damned on 
the very first night; but we see from Genest that it was 
acted three times. Hill put on many old plays during the 
season — those of Congreve, Farquhar, Dryden, Otway, and 
Shakespeare — and a few new ones besides his own. The 
most successful was Charles Shadwell's Fair Quaker of 
Deal, which drew large crowds even during the trial of 
Sacheverell. 8 

There is a flattering picture of Hill's management in an 
ode, "To Aaron Hill, Esq., upon his being appointed gov- 
ernor of the Royal Theatre," published in the friendly 

But modern ladies scarce find other use 

For the new-moulded nymph, than to cloak nature" — 

surely a novel use for a new-moulded nymph! 

i D.L. February 6, 1712 ; July 26, 1723. L.I.F. March 30, May 4, 
and May 10, 1720; February 13, 1721 (Genest). The plot is based on 
the various attempts of Sprightly, his man Toby, and Corporal Cuttem 
to get messages through to the fair Leonora, closely guarded by a 
half-blind and wholly foolish father, Sir Timothy Tough. 

s See Cibber's Apology, ed. Lowe, II, 91, n. 2. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 83 

British Apollo, April 3, 1710. 9 The theatre is bidden to 
lift up its head, for a mighty genius is now at the helm : 

" A bard whose vast capacious soul 
Hath innate force sufficient to control 
The vain assaults of snarling critics, while 
Beneath his auspices you sit and smile; 
As these he awes, the rest his wit alarms, 
While the fair sex are captivated by his charms." 

"With such a director, the guilty stage shall be reformed! 10 
However effectively his innate force controlled the vain 
assaults of snarling critics, it failed to control the actors, 
incited to intrigue as they probably were by Rich, the 
silenced manager. Hill seems to have shared the manage- 
ment with seven of the principal actors; but towards the 
end of the season he became displeased with them and de- 
posed them, to the satisfaction of the rest of the company, 
with the exception of Bickerstaff, Keene, Booth, and a few 
others. Booth was offered the post of manager of re- 
hearsals, but he made the restoration of the seven a condi- 
tion of his acceptance. Hill chose this critical moment to 
pay a visit to Essex — this was the year of his marriage with 
the daughter of Edmund Morris of Stratford in Essex — 
and left his unlucky brother as stage manager. For some 
neglect of duty, the brother exacted a fine from several of 
the players. What then happened may be quoted from the 
New History of the English Stage, by Percy H. Fitzgerald, 
who bases his account upon a letter written by Hill to 
Collier: 11 

9 Vol. Ill, no. 3. 

io The number for April 24-26 contains another poem, in which we 
are assured that 

' ' The Thespian car, triumphant, scours the plains. 
Heroic warmth now strikes the enervate swains, 
For Talbot holds the staff, and strenuous Hill the reins. ' ' 
11 1, 309 f. The letter is in the possession of a private collector. 



84 AARON HILL 

" They threw up all their parts, broke out into insubordination, 
and there were actually fears that they would seize on the house 
and carry off 'the cloaths.' Mr. Hill hurried up to town, and 
found all true, with this addition — that Mr. Bickerstaff had 
' beaten a poor fellow blind for reproving him for speaking 
scurrilously of me/ and had actually pushed the manager off the 
stage. For this offence Mr. Hill suspended Bickerstaff and 
Keene, and when he remonstrated with the former and begged 
of him not to be ' misled by villains/ ' he went into defiant revolt, 
forced the printer to put his name in the bills, and told the 
manager that he did not value him nor any man alive, but himself 
was his own master. . . . Leigh, with an impudence unheard of, 
exceeded all things. He told me he would not only be a manager, 
when I was none, but would go down and act with Pinkethman 
in spite of the Lord Chamberlain or me. 12 Booth with a thou- 
sand rascally invectives told me publicly that he and they would.' 
This foreboded an alarming state of things, and it showed to 
what lengths of insolence the players could proceed. Meanwhile 
Hill was receiving anonymous letters of warning that violence 
was intended, and took measures to protect his theatre. He told 
Stockdale, his deputy, not to open the doors for the performance 
until a ' guard of constables should arrive to keep the boxes ' 
and protect him from being assaulted in the performance of his 
duty. But when he went down that night, he found a perfect 
riot going on. Booth, heading a mob, had burst in the doors, 
and rushed up the passages behind the scenes. Then followed a 
scandalous scene. With drawn swords the infuriated players 
rushed into the manager's office. He half drew his, and with 
difficulty forced his way out into the passages. ' Powell then 
shortened his sword to stab me in the back, but I was saved by 
a gentleman. Leigh struck my brother a dangerous blow on the 
head with a stick. All this was in the open, in the presence of 
a number of men and women who had come to see the play.' 
The hunted director rushed to the Lord Chamberlain, but unfor- 

12 Pinkethman was to set up a booth in Greenwich; he did open on 
June 15, and Powell and Leigh did play. See Tatler, no. 188, June 
22, 1710, for a jocular notice of Pinkethman. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 85 

tunately could not find him. Returning to the theatre, he found 
all the regular doorkeepers replaced by men appointed by the 
actors, and he himself was refused admission. 

" Mr. Rich was then seen to pass by, who was greeted with 
loud ' hurrahs,' his hands kissed rapturously, while Leigh saluted 
him : ' God bless you, master ! See, we are at work for you.' 
The ' cloaths ' of the theatre were not yet gone, but were to be 
sent off the following day, and Rich was to be invited to take 
possession. Hill declared that the ringleaders, Powell and Leigh, 
were to be taken into custody and silenced. . . . The whole was 
no doubt instigated by Rich, who seems to have been an intriguer 
of the first quality." 13 

The Tatler had no doubt of Divito's connection with the 
riot. In the number for July 1, 1710 (no. 193), old Downes 
the prompter is represented as giving a "notion of the 
present posture of the stage": "A gentleman of the Inns 
of Court (Rich) and a deep intriguer had some time worked 
himself into the sole management and direction of the 
theatre. Nor is it less notorious that his restless ambition 
and subtle machinations did manifestly tend to the extirpa- 
tion of the good old British actors, and the introduction of 
foreign pretenders; such as harlequins, French dancers, 
and Roman singers. . . . But his schemes were soon exposed, 
and the great ones that supported him withdrawing their 
favor, he made his exit, and remained for a season in ob- 
scurity. During this retreat, the Machiavelian was not 
idle, but secretly fomented divisions, and wrought over to 
his side some of the inferior actors, reserving a trap-door to 
himself, to which only he had a key. ' ' But by these trap- 
door methods — whether figuratively or literally understood 

is "On 14th Juiie, 1710, the Lord Chamberlain's Keeords contain 
an entry which proves how rebellious the company were. Powell, 
Booth, Bickerstaff, Keen, and Leigh, are stated to have defied and 
beaten Aaron Hill, to have broken open the doors of the theatre, and 
made a riot generally. For this Powell is discharged and the others 
suspended." Gibber's Apology, ed. Lowe, II, 94, n. 1. 



86 AARON HILL 

— Rich succeeded in doing little more than troubling Hill's 
peace. He did not gain possession of Drury-Lane, and was 
obliged to content himself with rebuilding the theatre in 
Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields, — a task that kept him harmlessly 
occupied until circumstances turned in his favor. 14 

After June 6, there are no more bills for that season at 
Drury-Lane. The Haymarket, meanwhile, with Cibber, 
Wilks, and Betterton (who died in May, 1710) directing 
the plays, and McSwiney the operas, was so prosperous that 
it excited the envy of Collier, distracted by the troubles at 
Drury-Lane; and he accordingly used his court influence 
to force McSwiney and his actor-partners to take Drury- 
Lane and give him the Haymarket and the opera. The 
bargain was completed in November, 1710. 15 Knowing 
Hill's temperament, one is not at all surprised to find that 
he was so far from being dismayed by his spring's experi- 
ences that he was eager to try again. He had a fortune 
newly acquired by his marriage, and he had no difficulty 
in persuading Collier to "farm out" his "Musical Govern- 
ment," as Cibber expresses it, at a rent of 600 pounds a 
year. 16 

Hill's first enterprise as director of the opera was note- 
worthy. Handel, who had planned for some time to visit 
England, on the invitation of several English noblemen 
to whom he had become known at the Court of Hanover, 
arrived in London just at the opening of the opera season ; 
and Hill, "hearing of the arrival of a master, the fame of 

14 When John Rich opened, the theatre in the fall of 1714, he suc- 
ceeded in drawing several of the actors away from Drury-Lane, and 
among them were several of the rioters of 1710 — still faithful to the 
house of Rich. 

15 Collier was to be paid 200 pounds by the comedians, as a license 
for acting plays; and they were to give no plays on Wednesday, when 
that was an opera night. Gibber's Apology, II, 102, n. 1. 

i6 Ibid,, II, 105-106. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 87 

whose abilities had already penetrated into this country, 
applied to him to compose an opera." 17 The result was 
Rinaldo, composed in a fortnight. Giacomo Rossi wrote the 
libretto, after a sketch supplied to him by Hill, and Hill 
translated it into English. The opera, put on with great 
splendor, February 24, 1711, was received with a degree 
of enthusiasm unprecedented in England, and ran until 
June of that year. To understand the significance of the 
event, something must be said of the history of the opera 
in England before Handel's arrival. 

The death of Purcell had left England without any 
musical genius of her own. Before the close of the seven- 
teenth century, the taste for Italian music had been shown 
by the popularity of a number of "consorts" by Italian 
singers. 18 The first opera performed in the Italian manner 
was Arsinoe, an English version by Thomas Clayton of an 
opera sung at Bologna in 1677 ; it was presented at Drury- 
Lane in January, 1705, by English singers. Recitative was 
used for the narrative parts, and measured melody for the 
airs. According to Burney, 19 the opera violated in every 
song the common rules of musical composition, as well as 
the prosody and accents of the language; "the English 
must have hungered and thirsted extremely after dramatic 
music at this time, to be attracted and amused by such 
trash." Bononcini's Camilla was given by English singers 
in 1706, and by a mixed company of Italian and English 
the next year. In 1707, Addison wrote the libretto for 
Clayton's Rosamond, — performed, much to Addison's 
chagrin, only three times. Thomyris, a pasticcio of works 
by Scarlotti and Bononcini, followed. A version of Scar- 
lotti's Pirro e Demetrio introduced in 1708 the famous 

it Burney 's History of Music, IV, 222. 
is Ibid., IV, 195. 
is Ibid., IV, 201. 



88 AARON HILL 

Italian male soprano Nieolini. 20 The anonymous Almahide 
was the first opera sung throughout in Italian (January, 
1710) ; Maneini's Idaspe fedele, with its much ridiculed 
lion, 21 and Bononcini's Etearco, both sung entirely in 
Italian, complete the list of operas before Handel. ' ' Opera 
had degenerated to such a degree, ' ' according to the Oxford 
History of Music, "that the time was ripe for the successful 
introduction of Italian opera under Handel." 22 

Handel's work is said to represent the highest develop- 
ment of the opera of the past — to be the result of a suc- 
cessful evolution. As for Binaldo itself, "it is agreed by 
all schools of later critics that its intrinsic beauties give 
it special claims to consideration. . . . From its historical as 
well as musical value, it would most probably be the work 
selected if any manager should be found enterprising 
enough to venture on a revival of one of Handel's operas 
on the modern stage."' 23 The type to which Rinaldo 2i 
belongs was characterized by very definite conventions, 
governing the kind, number, and order of arias, and the 
number and kind of performers. There were usually three 
or four men, at least one of them an artificial soprano, and 
three women. There were five classes of arias. 25 The 

20 See Tatler, no. 115, for an appreciation of his powers as actor 
and singer. 

2i See Spectator, no. 13. 

22 IV, 191. 

23 Oxford Hist, of Music, IV, 207. 

24 The most famous air is the "Lascia ch'io pianga," — Almirena's 
song on being taken captive by Armida (II, 4) ; Handel considered 
Einaldo's "Cara sposa" (I, 7) the best air he ever wrote; "II tri- 
cerbero umiliato" (II, 3), sung by Rinaldo, was long popular as a 
drinking song; the aria for Armida at the end of Act II had a 
harpsichord accompaniment played by Handel himself. See Kockstro, 
Life of Handel, 62 f . 

25 The aria cantabile, simple and sweet ; the aria di portamento, a 
slow movement, more strongly marked in rhythm; the aria di mezzo 
carattere, with a richer accompaniment; the aria parlante, more 
declamatory; and the aria di bravura, a display piece. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 89 

opera was in three acts, and each artist sang at least one 
aria in each act; no performer was allowed two in succes- 
sion. In the last two acts, both hero and heroine had a 
scena, — a recitative followed by a display aria ; there was a 
grand duet and a lively chorus in conclusion. As the arias 
were written to show off certain voices, regardless of 
dramatic propriety, it is obvious that "the librettists were 
unable to treat their subjects in a worthy manner, and the 
composers cared little or nothing about suiting their music 
to the dramatic emotion of the words" ; 26 "the result was to 
kill all individuality, and even so strong a nature as 
Handel's own could not preserve his identity of style." 27 

No very inspired libretto could be written to suit such 
conventions as these, and the Italian and English verses of 
Rossi and Hill are quite as inane as those of some more 
modern librettos. The argument prefixed by Hill gives a 
sufficient idea of the story : ' ' Godfrey, general of the Chris- 
tian forces in the expedition against the Saracens, to engage 
the assistance of Rinaldo, a famous hero of those times, 
promises to give him his daughter Almirena, when the city 
of Jerusalem should fall into his hands. The Christians, 
with Rinaldo at their head, conquer Palestine, and besiege 
its king Argantes in that city. Armida, an Amazonian en- 
chantress, in love with and beloved by Argantes, contrives 
by magic to entrap Rinaldo in an enchanted castle, whence, 
after much difficulty, being delivered by Godfrey, he re- 
turns to the army, takes Jerusalem, converts Argantes and 
Armida to the Christian faith, and marries Almirena, ac- 
cording to the promise of her father Godfrey." The Eng- 
lish version is in blank verse lines of irregular length, with 
lyric outbursts for the arias; such, for instance, as Almi- 
rena 's address to Rinaldo (I, 1) : 

26 Arthur Elson, A History of Opera, 34, 1901. See also for char- 
acteristics outlined here the Oxford Hist, of Music, IV, 204-205; and 
W. S. Rockstro, Life of Handel, 62-63. 

27 Oxford Hist, of Music, IV, 202. 



90 AARON HILL 

" Go fight and succeed, 
For each drop you shall bleed 

Will increase the dear flame in my breast; 
'Tis glory and fame 
Win the generous dame, 

And the conqueror's courtship is best." 

Or the song of mermaids — early Ehine maidens — dancing 
in the water (II, 3) : 

" Your lovely May 
Of life when gay, 
Youth unheeding, 
Counsel needing, 
Pass away in love delighting" — etc. 

Hill's aim, however, had been to produce, not a libretto 
full of poetry, but one with ample opportunity for scenic 
display. He had determined (as he informed the Queen in 
his dedication) to devote his little fortune to a trial 
"whether such a noble entertainment, in its due magnifi- 
cence," could fail "in a city the most capable of Europe 
both to relish and support it. . . . The deficiencies I found 
... in such Italian operas as have hitherto been introduced 
among us were: first, that they had been composed for 
tastes and voices different from those who were to sing and 
hear them on the English stage ; and secondly, that wanting 
the machines and decorations, which bestow so great beauty 
on their appearance, they have been heard and seen to very 
considerable disadvantage. " He chose a subject that would 
afford scope to the music and fill the eye as well, — a story 
out of Tasso,- 8 already used in opera in Europe; Handel 

28 Hill was interested in Tasso at this time. In the preface to 
Elf rid, he mentions him with enthusiasm and adds: "As a proof of 
the veneration I profess to his memory, I have attempted a trans- 
lation of his Godfrey of Bulloign, and shall very suddenly publish a 
specimen and proposal for printing it by subscription. ' ' He probably 
never carried the plan out, but may have utilized some of his material 



HILL AND THE STAGE 91 

did his part with the music, and Hill did his with the 
stage setting. And indeed, the scenic effects are impressive 
even to read about: Argantes rides in a triumphal car, 
drawn by white horses led by armed blackamoors ; Armida 
appears in the air, in a chariot drawn by two huge dragons, 
out of whose mouths issue fire and smoke ; a black cloud 
filled with dreadful monsters conceals Almirena and 
Armida, and then passes away, leaving two frightful furies 
to mock Rinaldo; a delightful garden in the enchanted 
palace contains a grove full of singing birds; "a mountain 
horribly steep, ' ' crowned by the blazing battlements of the 
enchanted castle, and guarded by rows of ugly spirits, 
opens to swallow the soldiers, ' ' with thunder and lightning 
and amazing noises"; the crystal gate of the palace, struck 
by a magic wand, vanishes, the mountain disappears, and 
Godfrey and Eustatio find themselves on the side of a rock 
in mid-ocean. 

All these wonders were heralded by the British Apollo. 
The number for December 15-18, 1710,- 9 contains a poem 
in the form of question and answer, on the talked-of im- 
provements at the Haymarket: the ear is to hear new 
voices from foreign parts, the eye to behold new beauties — 

" Groves in natural forms appear, 
While their inmates charm the ear. 



Kay, machines, they say, will move 
Glorious regions from above." 

The reply confirms these rumors : 

" The ruler of the stage, we find, (Aaron Hill, Esq.) 
A youth of vast extended mind; 
Ko disappointments can control 
The emanations of his soul; 

in the libretto. William Bond also was interested in Tasso. See ch. V 
for Bond. 

29 Vol. Ill, no. 115. 



92 AARON HILL 

But through all lets will boldly run, 
Uncurbed, like th' horses of the sun " — etc. 

The Spectator, on the other hand, was inclined to be con- 
temptuous, but Addison's railleries were no doubt partly 
inspired by the memory of Rosamond's failure. 30 Mr. 
Spectator 31 saw a man carrying a cage of birds, which he 
discovered were destined for the opera, to represent the 
singing birds in Act I, 1; the real singing was to be per- 
formed by the flageolets. The opera, he goes on, is an 
agreeable entertainment for the winter, filled as it is " with 
thunder and lightning, illuminations and fireworks; which 
the audience may look upon without catching cold, and 
indeed without much danger of being burnt ; for there are 
several engines filled with water, and ready to play at a 
moment's warning." It is satisfactory to know that Hill's 
management did not neglect the necessary fire precautions. 
Addison makes fun of Rossi's Italian, and at his calling 
Handel the "Orpheus of our age"; says that it is no 
wonder the scenes are surprising, contrived as they are by 
two poets of different nations; belittles Tasso; and con- 
cludes by mentioning a treaty on foot to furnish Binaldo 
with an orange grove and with tom-tits for song-birds. 
The libretto was legitimate game for Mr. Spectator, as the 
absurdities of the operatic convention continue to be for 
anyone who cares to dwell on them ; but in selecting Handel 
as the butt of his ridicule, he was rather unfortunate. Hill 
could very well afford not to mind the Spectator. 

Hill's emphasis on the machinery might lead one to think 
that his ideas of opera did not go very far beyond the 
spectacular. But that would be a mistake. He grew to 
recognize clearly enough the deficiencies of Italian opera, 
and began about 1725 to express the hope that "our 

so See Burney, IV, 227. 
3i See nos. 5, 18, and 29. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 93 

emasculating present taste of the Italian luxury and 
wantonness of music will give way to a more passionate and 
animated kind of opera, where not only the eye and ear 
may expect to be charmed, but the heart to be touched and 
transported." 32 He begged Handel, 33 just at the time 
when the latter was abandoning opera for oratorio, to let 
England owe to his genius "the establishment of music 
upon a foundation of good poetry ; where the excellence of 
the sound should be no longer dishonored by the poorness 
of the sense it is chained to. My meaning is that you 
would be resolute enough to deliver us from our Italian 
bondage; and demonstrate that English is soft enough for 
opera, when composed by poets who know how to dis- 
tinguish the sweetness of our tongue from the strength of 
it, where the last is less necessary. I am of opinion that 
male and female voices may be found in this kingdom, 
capable of everything that is requisite; and I am sure a 
species of dramatic opera might be invented that, by recon- 
ciling reason and dignity with music and fine machinery, 
would charm the ear and hold fast the heart together. ' ' I 
dare say Hill would have been willing, as poet, to col- 
laborate with Handel, though he refrained from saying so 
in this letter, — a mere note of acknowledgment for some 
complimentary tickets. He was in accord with many of his 
contemporaries in denouncing the wantonness and lack of 
reason of the Italian music ; but unlike most of them, he had 
in his mind the ideal not only of dramatic opera — an ideal 
that did not begin to be realized until the production of 
Gluck's Orfeo — but of dramatic opera in English — an ideal 
still very imperfectly realized. 34 

32 Plain Dealer, no. 94. 

S3 Letter of December 5, 1732, Works, I, 115. 

34 Of the two classes of people defined in the Oxford Hist, of 
Music (IV, 190), Hill apparently belonged to the first: "almost ever 
since the invention of opera, a ceaseless struggle has gone on between 



94 AARON HILL 

Hill deserves all praise for engaging Handel to write his 
first composition in England, and for helping to make the 
venture successful. But with the ill-luck that overtook his 
plans even when his own judgment was not at fault, he 
was not allowed to reap the benefit of this operatic triumph. 
Collier was a restless and unreliable person in stage affairs 
— always dissatisfied with his own share, always envious of 
the success of others. He now resumed the management of 
the opera, for reasons rather vaguely indicated by the 
theatrical historians. According to Cibber, "before the 
season was ended (upon what occasion, if I could remember, 
it might not be material to say) he took it into his Hands 
again." 35 And Dibdin's account 36 is that when Collier 
found out that Hill's management was bringing in con- 
siderable profit, he "somehow or other found out an in- 
formality in the agreement, and took the property back to 
himself before the season was over ; while Hill, who was too 
wise or too powerless to contend with him, relinquished 
his right without murmuring." Collier with his Tory in- 
fluence seems to have been able to shift the pieces on the 
chess-board to suit his convenience. But this last move 
gave him no advantage. Handel returned to Hanover in 
the summer. The opera did not prosper the next season, 
and Collier cast longing eyes at the theatre. Early in 
1712, poor McSwiney had the opera, in a sinking condition, 
thrown back upon his hands; and he became so involved 
that in January 1713, he was forced to leave the country 
for twenty years. Collier secured a new license for him- 
self, Wilks, Cibber, and Dogget, and presently left the 

those who regard it as an ideal means of stirring human emotion by 
the dramatic representation of great deeds or tragic motives, and 
those who look upon it as an expensive amusement, a vehicle for per- 
sonal display, or a means of ostentation." 

35 Apology, II, 105-106. 

36 Stage, IV, 387. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 95 

management to the actors for a consideration of 700 pounds 
a year. 

Until 1716, Hill was fully occupied with his beech-oil. 
Meanwhile, the accession of George I (1714) had had 
several interesting effects on the theatrical situation: "on 
the change of the ministry, Collier became a nonentity; 37 
the actors easily brought about his removal ; and knowing 
that some one would demand his pension, they selected 
Steele to be his successor, because of his influence with the 
new government and his well-known friendliness to the 
stage. In October, 1714, Steele secured a new license for 
himself, Wilks, Cibber, and Booth (whose success in Cato 
had brought him into the management), and converted this 
a few months later into a patent for his life-time and three 
years after. "Divito" the intriguer had no difficulty in 
getting the order of silence withdrawn, but his death soon 
afterwards left it to his son, John Rich, to open Lincoln 's- 
Inn-Fields in December, 1714. 

Hill turned again to tragedy after the beech-mast failure. 
Possibly the complicated and dismal plot of The Fatal 
Vision, or the Fall of Siam, reflects his state of mind at this 
time. The new manager accepted the play, and it had its 
first performance at Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields theatre on Feb- 
ruary 7, 1716, and its seventh and last on March 6. At this 
time, practically no new tragedies were being produced at 
either theatre, though new farces and comedies appeared 
occasionally among the stock plays of Vanbrugh, Congreve, 
Shad well, Wycherley, and Farquhar; Rowe, Southerne, 
Otway, Lee, Dryden, and Shakespeare satisfied the demand 
for tragedy. This was a state of affairs far from satis- 
factory to one who was himself a playwright, and Hill's 
opinion about this and other matters appears in the dedica- 
tion of the play to Dennis and Gildon. He writes, he says, 

37 Genest, II, 545. 



96 AARON HILL 

only for pleasure and to display his ideas; he is already 
convinced of the stupidity of the modern audience, and yet 
he scarcely blames them for their failure to be moved by 
the "affected, vicious and unnatural tone of voice, so com- 
mon on our stages. ' ' How can passion be expressed by in- 
discriminate ranting? If in one man could be united Mr. 
Cibber's assurance, Mr. Wilks's brisk and lively spirit and 
soft address, Mr. Keene's majesty, and Mr. Booth's sweet 
voice and just accent, 38 there would be some hope for 
authors. In The Fatal Vision Hill tried, according to his 
own account, to reconcile the ancient and the modern types : 
he wished to be as regular as the French and observe the 
rules with "all the necessary strictness," and as lively as 
the Elizabethans — that is, "indulge the common taste for 
fulness of design." He thinks it the first endeavor of the 
kind; and so perhaps it was, though attempts to confine 
Shakespeare within the rules had been going on for some 
time. The result in a new tragedy is even more astonish- 
ing than in the Shakespearean alterations. The Fatal 
Vision is built, declares its author, ' ' upon the most variety 
of turns, and has a deeper and more surprising plot than 
any play which has been published, that I know of, in the 
English tongue"; and he has found room, too, for "topical 
reflection, large description, love, war, show, and passion." 
Why need order confine the range of a poet's fancy? 
China offered a fruitful field for the wandering of his 
fancy, because our ideas of it are so dark, and it is so remote 
from present fashions. 

The plot must be read to be appreciated — no summary 
can do it justice. There is an emperor of China, his two 
sons, a captive princess of Siam, a captive general of Siam 
in love (as are both the Chinese princes) with the princess; 

38 Hill evidently bore Booth no malice for his part in the 1710 riot; 
they were the best of friends in later life. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 97 

there is Selim, the emperor's eunuch, who in Act II is dis- 
covered to be the long since banished empress — banished 
because of a prophecy that she would bear a third son who 
would kill his father; the captive general turns out to be 
this third son. Through a misunderstanding too com- 
plicated to explain briefly, the emperor suspects the two 
princes of treachery, and dooms them to death ; the eunuch 
and the Siamese general (or the empress and her son) plan 
to rescue them, and to that end turn loose the captive 
Siamese soldiery, who, ignorant of the family secrets, not 
unnaturally take the opportunity to kill off the Chinese 
royal family, leaving the third son and the princess to 
marry and occupy the two thrones. For "large descrip- 
tion," we have an account by the princes of the defeat of 
Siam — where "mingling deaths effaced the flowery sweet- 
ness of the plain"; and one in Act III of a storm and 
shipwreck; an elephant who took part in the battle does 
not deserve to be forgotten : 

" the roused elephant 
Rears his huge trunk for battle; grins with wrath, 
And inly ruminates the promised ruin." 

Is there another elephant like that? For the vehicle of 
topical reflection, there is a hermit, whom the captive 
princess discovers reading and soliloquizing about Alex- 
ander the Great — a fruitful theme for meditation. Surely 
the "common taste for fulness of design" ought to have 
been gratified by The Fatal Vision. 

Another period of absorption in commercial projects fol- 
lowed, and it was not until the beginning of 1721 that 
Hill's attention turned once more to the stage. His motive 
in writing his next play was purely philanthropic. A 
Scotch friend of his, Joseph Mitchell the poet, was in dis- 
tress ; and Hill, probably unable to assist him with money, 
wrote The Fatal Extravagance, permitted Mitchell to call 



98 AAEON HILL. 

himself the author, had the play put on at Lincoln 's-Inn- 
Fields (April 12, 1721), 29 and supported it on the supposed 
author's third night. 40 It was afterwards included in 
Hill's Dramatic Works. The preface, written in Mitchell's 
name, states that Shakespeare's Yorkshire Tragedy, which 
furnished the hint for the play, was put into his hands by 
his "good friend, Mr. Hill, to whom I take this occasion 
of expressing my gratitude in the most public manner I 
can. ... I owe much in the scheme, in the sentiments, and 
language of this piece to the direction of that accomplished 
gentleman." This is a virtual admission of Hill's author- 
ship. 41 Later, Mitchell made the play in a manner his own, 
"improving" it into five acts by the addition of several 
new characters and episodes. The additions are not an 
improvement; the one-act play is, as the author of the 
sketch in Cibber's Lives says, 42 one of Hill's best. "I 
know not if Mr. Hill has anywhere touched the passions 
with so great a mastery." 

The play belongs in the class of domestic tragedies, and 
took its inspiration from the South Sea frenzy. 43 Hill, in 
the prologue, proclaims how unworthy of compassion are 
the "rants of ruined Kings": 

" Empires o'erturned, and heroes held in chains, 
Alarm the inind, but give the heart no pains. 



39 The play was performed at L.I.F. April 22, 1721; January 11, 
1722; May 2, 1723; February 21, 1730; at Dublin in 1721; and at 
Covent Garden, for Mitchell's benefit, November 25, 1734. 

40 Victor's Hist, of Theatres, II, 123; Cibber's Lives, IV, 349. 

41 It is said that Mitchell undeceived the world, and made known, 
the real author of the play, and that he took ' ' every proper occasion 
to express his gratitude and celebrate his patron." 

42 IV, 349. 

43 According to the prologue written on the revival of the play 
in 1729. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 99 

Not so, when from such passions as our own, 
Some favorite folly's dreadful fate is shown." 

Bellmour, addicted to gambling, loses his entire fortune 
and that of his friend in speculation. When the play 
opens, he hears of his friend's arrest for debt, and is soon 
forced himself to face the cruel creditor, Bargrave. Find- 
ing entreaties useless, and maddened by Bargrave 's taunts, 
Bellmour forces him to a duel and kills him. Urged by 
his wife to escape, he walks apart for a moment to consider, 
but decides instead to kill himself, his wife, and children, 
justifying his dreadful resolve by various desperate argu- 
ments. 44 The wife and children, in their ignorance, drink 
the cordial he prepares for them; he then undeceives her, 
and kills himself. Courtney, the uncle, however, had seen 
the fatal cup, suspected poison, and substituted some harm- 
less drink. News of a bequest that will keep his family 
from want cheers Bellmour 's last moments. The action is 
rapid and the play readable. 45 Mitchell said in the preface 
to the fourth edition that it "took," and Mallet wrote to 

4 * Such as, ' ' He who beggars his posterity begets a race to curse 
him. ' ' 

45 The scene where Bellmour tells his wife of his resolve to take the 
journey she has urged upon him is effective, with its touch of 
dramatic irony: 

B. "I have bethought me of a means to evade 

The malice of my fortune. 'Twill be a journey 

A little longer than thy love could wish it, 

Yet not so far but we shall meet again. 
L. "0, be the distance wide as pole from pole, 

Let me but follow thee and I am blessed. 
B. "It shall be so, Louisa. 
L. "A thousand angels 

Spread their wings o 'er thee, and protect thy steps. 

Now thou art kind! — But the dear little ones, 

Shall they go too? 
B. "All! All! shall go!" 



100 AARON HILL 

Ker that it was acted with a great deal of applause. 46 So 
it must have achieved its end in relieving the poet's neces- 
sities. 

The success of this play probably brightened Hill 's views 
on theatrical affairs, which were just then entering upon 
a new phase. In January, 1720, the Duke of Newcastle, 
Lord Chamberlain, had closed Drury-Lane, to punish Steele 
for the stand he had taken on the Peerage Bill, — a stand 
opposed to that of most of his party. Of course, the 
ostensible reason for the action of the Lord Chamberlain 
had nothing to do with politics. Steele remonstrated, but 
was forbidden to write or speak to Newcastle. He stated 
his case in the Theatre, of which the first number came out 
on January 2, 1720; and in its columns, and in the pam- 
phlets written against him, the question of the validity of 
the Lord Chamberlain's action in overriding the patent was 
discussed. Steele claimed that his patent was a freehold, 
and quoted legal authorities, but to no purpose. The actors 
themselves submitted, and received a license to play, but 
Steele was not restored to his place as controller until the 
friendly "Walpole became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 
May, 1721. 47 The point of interest in this dispute was its 
effect on the theatrical monopoly. The Crown had not 
hesitated in Rich's case and in Steele's to disregard patent 
rights, and issue licenses or silencing orders as it saw fit. 
Of the patentees, Steele alone seriously questioned the 
Crown's prerogative, and he had been conspicuously de- 
feated. The result was the rise, between 1720 and 1737, of 
unlicensed minor theatres: patent rights were regarded as 
inferior to the authority of managers, and private specula- 
tion was stimulated by the prosperity of Drury-Lane. 

46 September 3, 1721. 

47 See Aitken's Life of Steele, II, 221 f. On December 19, 1719, 
Cibber was forbidden to act, and various explanations were given of 
Ms offence. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 101 

"Within a decade after 1720, London boasted half a dozen 
theatres, and every street had its theatrical booth where 
performances similar to those at the other theatres might 
be seen. ' H8 The two unlicensed theatres that became most 
famous were the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, the scene 
of the production of Fielding's farces, and Goodman's 
Fields, where in 1741 Garrick made his first London ap- 
pearance. 

Among the first to appreciate the opportunity apparently 
offered to open a theatre without a patent was Hill. In 
1720, the Little Theatre in the Haymarket was built as a 
speculation by one Potter, a carpenter, who relied on its 
being hired for dramatic exhibitions. 49 On December 29, 
1720, a newspaper advertisement announced the opening of 
the house with "La Fille a la mode, ou le Badaud de Paris," 
"under the patronage of a distinguished nobleman, the 
company calling themselves 'the French Comedians of his 
Grace the Duke of Montague.' " 50 This French specula- 
tion languished and on May 4, 1721, came to an end. Very 
shortly afterwards, Hill must have begun to get a company 
together. Rich remonstrated and quoted his patent privi- 
leges, but Hill replied 51 that his pretence to exclusive power 
reminded him of "a poor merry fellow, who used to sleep 
when he was hungry, in hopes to dream of a surfeit. ' ' He 
was, however, willing to compromise: "I suppose you know 
that the Duke of Montague and I have agreed, and that I 
am to have that house half the week, and his French vermin 
the other half ; but I would forbear acting at all there this 

48 Nicholson, Struggle for a Free Stage, etc., 21. 

49 Genest, III, 159. G'enest 's first bill is dated December 12, 1723. 
so H. Barton Baker, The London Stage, I, 173-174. Fitzgerald, 

New Hist, of the Eng. Stage, II, 98-99, notes an advertisement of 
December 15, 1720, announcing the expected arrival of the French 
company. 

si September 9>, 1721, Works, IT, 46 f. 



102 AARON HILL 

season, if you will let me your house for two nights a week 
in Lent, and three a week after. On all those nights I will 
pay full actual charge of your company and my own, and 
either give you a sum certain, or share the remainder with 
you. I will use your music, your doorkeepers, etc. But 
the players, the scenes, and the clothes shall be my own. 
. . . My own company's affairs permit me not to wait long 
for an answer." 

The rest of the story is told in several long letters that 
Hill wrote to the Duke of Montague in January, 1722. 52 
It seems that the new company was then ready to open at 
the Little Theatre, to act English tragedy — a design in 
which Colonel Horsey and some other gentlemen were con- 
cerned with Hill. But the Duke's Frenchmen had come 
back. "Before the Frenchmen came over," Hill tells his 
Grace, "I made an absolute agreement with Mr. Potter for 
the House, and undertook to pay him 540 pounds for two 
seasons. And when he first talked with me of the French 
Actors' design to come over, I consented, on condition they 
should act there but ten nights, and take all those nights 
within the month of November. Now, they came not only 
much later than they agreed, but have greatly exceeded 
their number of nights already. And the English Com- 
pany being now ready for opening, I have warned them 
that they can have liberty to act at that House no longer 
than Tuesday next. But they may certainly get permission 
to act two or three times a week at the Opera House." He 
would not have mentioned the matter to his Grace, but for 
the fact that the Frenchmen used his name as their en- 
courager and patron; and he appeals to the justice of his 
Grace in this difficulty. His Grace, who is said to have been 
a man of some talent but with much of the buffoon about 

•« Hist. MS. Comm., IX, 369-370. The dates of Hill's letters are 
January 20, January 21, and January 24. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 103 

him, has gone down to history as the author of a famous 
hoax on the public at the Haymarket Theatre in 1749. 53 
Hill was apparently the victim of one of the Duke's jokes, 
for he wrote the next day : "I am sorry, my Lord, to dis- 
cern, by the turn of your Grace's letter, that there is some 
very great mistake, which from a person of your good- 
nature, humanity, and love of justice, could occasion me a 
treatment so undeserved. ... I writ to you in mere respect, 
because the French used your name. I was far from even 
supposing it true that you knew anything of them — much 
less that they were your servants. And so little did I 
dream that the House itself was your Grace's, that in my 
covenant with Potter, I agreed that all the rent which the 
French Players should pay till I was ready to open, and 
what he should weekly receive afterwards from me, should 
be ... in discharge of a sum which he told me you had 
promised to see paid, if the old French Company did not 
pay it." Thus his bargain with Potter seemed to be really 
to the Duke's advantage. He begs the Duke to inform him 
if there is anything "dark" in Potter's proceedings. 
"Again, therefore, I must earnestly entreat your Grace to 
reflect on the resolution you are taking to refuse me admis- 
sion to the House, after a very great expense of money and 
time for making and painting entire new sets of scenes, and 
clothes, all which are now ready, as also in getting together 
an entire new Company of actors, fit for Tragedy, most of 
whom . . . are persons of some character and distinction, 
and at least a better company than either of the old ones. 
... It is a daily and intolerable loss which I am kept at, 
unless your Grace shall be so good as to change your resolu- 
tion. For, whatever right the law may give me, I know 
not ; but I am sure I shall never put that to the trial, if I 

53 See Baker, The London Stage, I, 183. The audience was so 
angry at the hoax that it nearly broke up the theatre. 



104 AARON HILL 

must have your Grace for my enemy." He suggests an 
arrangement with the French players, and even offers to 
pay part of their rent at the Opera House. 

His Grace's reply filled Hill with amazement: "I must 
acknowledge that you have done nothing for support of the 
poor Frenchmen but what your honour and your charity 
obliged you to. All I could wish to have been otherwise is, 
that my reputation had stood so well in your Grace's 
opinion as to have merited this notice before you took those 
measures, which have made much noise in Town, and which 
I should then have made unnecessary." To the Duke's 
suggestion that Hill try the Opera House, Hill points out 
that he has had scenery painted — "after a model perfectly 
out of the general road of scenery" — that fits only the stage 
of the Little Theatre. He begs the privilege, in case he 
can make no arrangement at the other house, of having the 
use of the Haymarket on certain nights; he will not inter- 
fere with the French ; ' ' and when your Grace shall acquaint 
them how Potter's double-dealing has been the occasion of 
all this, they will no longer mistake me for an enemy; I 
will take particular care that they are used with all possible 
civility. ' ' 

But evidently the double-dealing carpenter and the 
merry Duke did nothing to help Hill out, and the scheme 
fell through. 

Probably his alteration of Henry V, for which he had 
had new scenery painted, was the tragedy Hill had ready 
for his company; but when it was produced (December 5, 
1723), it was under the protection of the patent at Drury- 
Lane, with Booth and Mrs. Oldfield in the leading roles. 
Henry V had not been acted since the Restoration, although 
the comic scenes had been worked up into a farce, under 
the title of Half-Pay Officers. 54 One can foretell with some 

s* Produced at L.I.F. January 11, 1720 (Genest). 



HILL AND THE STAGE 105 

accuracy what 18th century adapters will ' cut out of a 
Shakespearean play; but only a genius akin to their own 
can conceive what they will put in. So, although we might 
expect Hill to omit Fluellen, Gower, Pistol and the rest, 
and even parts of the Princess Katherine's conversation 
with Alice, nothing can prepare us for the appearance of 
a lady once betrayed by the king, the revengeful Harriet, 
who roams about the camp disguised as a page, acts as 
emissary between the English conspirators and the 
Dauphin, assumes the role of Viola in an interview with 
Katherine (when she speaks of her own case as that of her 
sister), and is finally so touched by Henry's platitudes 
about his undiminished love and his kingly responsibilities 
that she reveals the conspiracy and then stabs herself. 55 
Henry's youthful follies, in this lady's account, assume 
startling proportions: his time has been spent, not in 
tavern-drinking and playing practical jokes on Falstaff, but 
in. working devastation among the maidens of England — he 
has ruined ' ' countless crowds of beauties. ' ' When Harriet 
first appears, her uncle, Lord Scroop, urges her to be 
reasonable; "reason?" she cries, "I detest it!" 

" Calm ? No — let cottage fools with helpless sighs 
Bewail their ruined innocence. My soul, 
Full charged with hate and pride, breaks out in passion, 
Bold as my wrongs and dreadful as my purpose." 

The "gentle Harriet" talks in this strain all the time. 
Hill's Katherine bears no resemblance to Shakespeare's, — 
she is, of course, much more refined. Hill represents her as 
ss The platitudes are to this effect : 

' ' Still I regard thee with the same desires, 
Gaze with the same transporting pleasure on thee, 
As when our bounding souls first flew together, 
And mingled raptures in consenting softness. 
But kings must have no wishes for themselves" — etc. 



106 AARON HILL 

already in love with a mysterious stranger, whose addresses 
and unnamed perfections had charmed her listening soul a 
year before; this turns out to be Henry — her high-beating 
heart recognizes his voice immediately. There is a delight- 
ful novelty in Act V : the battle, in approved French style, 
takes place behind the scenes, and is recounted to the audi- 
ence by the Genius of England, who arises suddenly during 
the noise of drums and trumpets and sings : 

"Look! behold! the marching lines! 
See, the dreadful battle joins! 
Hark! like two seas the shouting armies meet! 
Echoing hills the shock repeat," etc. 56 

In cutting out the comic parts of serious pieces and 
dropping "low" characters, Hill illustrates the attitude of 

56 The unities are preserved by confining the action entirely to 
France — the conspiracy as well as the siege of Harfleur and the battle 
of Agincourt. Scenes are joined together: II, 4, and III, 5, in 
Shakespeare form part of Hill's II, 1; and Shakespeare's V, 2, is 
included in Hill's III; Hill retains the boasting scene between the 
Dauphin and his friends — it introduces Act V (Shakespeare's III, 7). 
In combining and transferring speeches, in altering good lines, and 
in omitting the best, Hill ranks well with his predecessors. The 
speeches of the Chorus are distributed among the other characters; 
Exeter's account of the deaths of Suffolk and York is retained in 
part, with (it is almost needless to say) the omission of its most 
beautiful line — "Tarry, sweet soul, for mine; then fly abreast." 
Hill 's crowning achievement is to put into Katherine 's mouth Henry 's 
soliloquy on ceremony (IV, I. Katherine 's speech is in Act II). 
Nothing Hill did, however, is worse than Otway's mangling of 
Eomeo's speech — "It was the lark, and not the nightingale," — in 
his Caius Marius. — To see what Hill 's princess is like, read her speech 
on being told the interests of France demand her marriage with 
Henry : 

"Sooner than stoop to this, were mine the sceptre, 
I would turn Amazon — my softness hid 
In glittering steel, and my plumed helmet nodding 
With terrible adornment, I would meet 
This Henry with a flame more fierce than love." 



HILL AND THE STAGE 107 

all the uninspired Shakespearean adapters of the age. 57 
They all thought they were acting in the interests of art; 
they all desired to reveal Shakespeare's greatness. 58 And 
to introduce a love story, if there were none, or to add 
another, if there were not enough, was a common practice 
with them. Tate patched up a love affair between Edgar 
and Cordelia in Lear, and as late as 1771, Cumberland 
supplied Timon with a daughter, courted by Alcibiades. 
Hill 's Harriet, therefore, is one of a goodly company. But 
the public did not take kindly to this particular alteration. 
Booth tried to explain their indifference by their disposi- 
tion to look upon Henry V, not as a new play, but merely 
as a play altered from Shakespeare — not an unreasonable 
point of view, surely. "The many beauties you have im- 
proved from him," Booth remarks, 59 "and some noted 
speeches you have made use of with no very material altera- 
tion . . . have possessed the gross imaginations of the audi- 
ence that most of the fine passages of your own are his 
too. . . . This I have found from some whose education, 
understanding, and acquaintance . . . might have taught 
them better; and yet their knowing his manner of writing 
so well, perhaps, might the sooner lead them into the mis- 
take." Booth is absolutely of the opinion, however, "that 

57 Genest says that Hill had taken a hint from Orrery 's Henry V. 
The only possible' hint is Orrery's use of the name Tudor to designate 
the lover whom Katherine had seen a year before; but in Orrery's 
play, he is a real person, and a rival of Henry's — not Henry himself 
in disguise. Orrery's play, which is in rhyme, has scarcely any 
resemblance to Shakespeare's. See Dramatic Works of Eoger Boyle, 
Earl of Orrery, etc., I. London, 1739. 

ss < ' Not a single one of these adapters, even the very wretchedest 
of them, doubted for a moment that his work was a decided im- 
provement upon the original." Lounsbury, Shakespeare as a Dra- 
matic Artist, 293. 

59 Letter from Booth to Hill, dated ' ' Sunday morning, ' ' in the 
Col. of 1751. 



108 AARON HILL 

after it has slept some time, it will appear again upon the 
stage, with a much better grace, and continue in the stock 
in the first form of tragedy forever." 60 

The production occasioned a little bickering in two of 
the periodicals — Pasquin and the True Briton. The Pasquin 
correspondent 61 is firmly of the opinion that Shakespeare's 
soul has "transmigrated" to Hill; and a writer in the True 
Briton of December 13 is amazed at Harriet's failure to 
affect the ladies : " To what must we impute it that the sex 
most concerned in this incident of the play, seemed so little 
to be touched by it ! " Few in that day would have thought 
of imputing it to the innate good-sense of the sex. All this 
praise was treated with scorn by "Menander," in the 
Pasquin of December 20. The Trite Briton had admired a 
passage in Hill 's play about the unbusied shepherd 's having 
a pleasanter time than the king: the expression, says 
"Menander," is vastly labored and distorted to disguise, 
if possible, the obviousness of the sentiment; of course a 
hawthorne shade is sweeter than a canopy, even if the latter 
were not shaken by treason — it only teaches us "that it is 
better to be safe in a cellar than blown up in a drawing- 
room. ' ' He contrasts the old Harry 's way of making love 
with the new one 's, much to the latter 's disadvantage. Hill 
was much hurt at this attempt to "justify the grossest 
mixture of insult and rusticity in a speech of Shakespeare's 
Harry to the Princess of France"; and he reflected, in 
typical eighteenth century fashion, that the men who injure 
Shakespeare most are his admirers, who make no distinction 
between his errors and his excellences. 62 And so we may 

so The play was performed six times (Genest). 

6i December 3, 1723. 

62 See letter to the ' ' reputed author of Pasquin, ' ' in Worlcs, II, 
130. The editor of Hill's letters confused the periodical with Field- 
ing's play of Pasquin, and represents the letter as addressed to 
Fielding. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 109 

leave Henry V to await the resurrection prophesied by 
Booth. 63 

63 ' ' Menander, ' ' whose sense commands one 's respect, unfortunately 
mistook the strawberry and nettle passage for one of Hill 's additions, 
and thus laid himself open to the True Briton's retort of not knowing 
the difference between Shakespeare and Hill. 



CHAPTER IV 

HILL AND THE STAGKE (Continued-) 

1723-1749 

Hill 's own idea of the reason for the failure of his Henry 
V introduces us to a new and important dramatic develop- 
ment. "There is a kind of dumb drama," exclaims Hill, 
"a new and wonderful discovery! that places the wit in the 
heels ! and the experience of both our theatres might have 
taught any writer but so dull a one as I am, that the 
Harlequins are gentlemen of better interest than the 
Harrys." 1 Harlequin and Scaramouche were familiar to 
Londoners even in Restoration days, for a company of 
Italians visited London in 1673, and there are various 
allusions to Arlequin before the eighteenth century. In 
1702, John "Weaver arranged a pantomime, often acted 
by Rich, called The Cheats of Scapin, — "an entertainment 
of dancing, action, and motion only"; and he also arranged 
pantomimes — Mars and Venus, Orpheus and Eurydice, and 
Cupid and Bacchus — for Drury-Lane. In 1718, a French 
company presented The Two Harlequins at Lincoln 's-Inn- 
Fielcls, and an Italian company, about 1724, acted at the 
Haymarket. 2 Although, before 1723, John Rich had pro- 
duced some little Harlequinades "in the taste of the Italian 
Night-scenes," 3 his genius did not really blaze forth until 
that year. A little before the performance of Henry V, a 
pantomime called Dr. Faustus had been brought out at 

i Preface to Henry V. 

2 Wyndham, Annals of Covent Garden Theatre, I, 12 ; Winifred 
Smith, The Commedia Dell' Arte, 222 f. 

3 Genest, III, 155. 

110 



HILL AND THE STAGE 111 

Drury-Lane by Thurmond the dancing-master; Rich fol- 
lowed on December 20 with his Necromancer, or History of 
Br. Faustus; and on January 21, 1725, with Harlequin 
Sorcerer. 

Fielding, in a well-known passage, describes these enter- 
tainments as consisting of two parts, "which the inventor 
distinguished by the names of the serious and the comic. 
The serious exhibited a certain number of heathen gods 
and heroes, who were certainly the worst and dullest com- 
pany into which an audience was ever introduced ; and . . . 
were actually intended so to be, in order to contrast the 
comic part of the entertainment, and to display the tricks 
of Harlequin to the better advantage. This was, perhaps, 
no very civil use of such personages, but the contrivance 
was, nevertheless, ingenious enough, and had its effect. 
And this will now plainly appear, if, instead of serious and 
comic, we supply the words duller and dullest, for the 
comic was certainly duller than anything before shown on 
the stage, and could be set off only by that superlative 
degree of dulness which composed the serious. So intoler- 
ably serious, indeed, were these gods and heroes, that 
Harlequin . . . was always welcome on the stage, as he 
relieved the audience from worse company." 4 

A more friendly account of Rich's achievement is given 
by Thomas Davies : " By the help of gay scenes, fine habits, 
grand dances, appropriated music, and other decorations, 
he exhibited a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, or some 
other fabulous writer. Between the pauses or acts of this 
serious representation, he interwove a comic fable, consist- 
ing chiefly of the courtship of Harlequin and Columbine, 
with a variety of surprising adventures and tricks, which 
were produced by the magic wand of Harlequin; such as 
the sudden transformation of palaces and temples to huts 

4 Tom Jones, bk. V, eh. 1. 



112 AARON HILL 

and cottages; of men and women into wheel-barrows and 
joint-stools; of trees ... to houses; colonades to beds of 
tulips; and mechanics' shops into serpents and ostriches." 
And of Rich 's acting he says that ' ' his gesticulation was so 
perfectly expressive of his meaning, that every motion of 
his hand or head, or of any part of his body, was a kind 
of dumb eloquence that was readily understood by the 
audience"; his leave-taking of Columbine was at once 
graceful and affecting. 5 

These two quotations represent pretty well the divergent 
views of critics and audience about the new entertainment. 
The critics denounced, and the public enjoyed. In Ho- 
garth's plate of Masquerades and Operas (1723), Satan 
appears dragging a multitude to the masquerade and opera, 
and on the opposite side crowds rush to witness the panto- 
mimes; over the gateway is the sign of Dr. Faustus, with 
dragon and windmill; a woman is carting off Shakespeare, 
Jonson, and the rest in a wheelbarrow. A correspondent in 
Pasquin writes with much concern: "Dear Pasquin, if 
affairs go on at this rate, the poet and the player will be- 
come useless things, while the joiner, the dragon-maker, and 
posture master run away with all the credit and profit." 6 
On the other hand, a writer in the Weekly Journal, or 
Saturday's Post defends pantomime on the ground that 
there were rope-walking elephants in Rome. 7 There is, 
of course, no question what position Hill would take. In 
the Plain Dealer for July 6, 1724, 8 he describes the accom- 
plishments of an African elephant and a Russian bear, and 
suggests that they apply at the theatre, — "entering lately 
with much vivacity upon new plans of action which fall 
immediately within the genius of our four-footed virtu- 

5 Life of Garrick, I, 92, 331. 

e January 21, 1724. See also February 4, 1724. 

7 January 23 and 30, 1724-1725. 

s No. 31. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 113 

osos. ' ' His scorn increases month by month ; by December, 
he is commenting on the genius of the actors' limbs, the 
readiness of their "elastic capacity," the "voice of their 
muscles"; and is hoping presently to see Mr. Lun (Rich) 
' ' crawling up the edge of one of his scenes, and sticking to 
the roof like a spider over the heads of a shouting pit! 
where he will spin himself into their good graces, till their 
necks are half broke with the sublimity of their enter- 
tainment." 9 

The scorn of the judicious had no effect on Rich; and 
even the other house, in self-defense, had to try to imitate 
him as best it could, thus winning for its managers a place 
in the Dunciad. 10 The success of Harlequin and of the 
Beggar's Opera raised the prosperity of Lincoln 's-Inn- 
Fields to a height that embarrassed the older house. The 
famous actors of Drury-Lane were dropping out one by 
one : Mrs. Oldfield died in 1731 ; Wilks, in 1732 ; Booth, in 
1733, after a long illness that had kept him off the stage for 
several years; Cibber was growing old. Meanwhile, the 
Haymarket and Goodman's Fields (opened in 1729) were 
nourishing ; the most successful new tragedy, George Barn- 
well, was brought out at the latter house. The prosperity 
of the minor theatres, the increasing tendency to satirize 
political conditions, the popularity of pantomime, the dis- 
appearance of the old school of actors, — all made the situa- 
tion about 1730 interesting and full of possibilities. It was 
clearly a period of change and readjustment, with many 
opportunities for the critic and the author. 

Such Hill found it. From 1730 to 1738, when he re- 

9 No. 77. See also Nos. 51, 59, and 82. 
io See Dunciad, 1st ed., Ill, 215: 

"When lo! to dark encounter in mid-air, 
New wizards rise, here Booth and Cibber there; 
Booth in his cloudy tabernacle shrined, 
On grinning dragons Cibber mounts the wind." 
9 



114 AARON HILL 

tired to Plaistow, he was actively concerned in one way or 
another with the stage : he wrote plays that were successful, 
a play that failed, and a play that no manager would pro- 
duce ; he elaborated a theory on the art of acting and prac- 
tised it on several pupils, one of whom did him much credit ; 
he wrote innumerable letters of advice to young actors and 
actresses ; he had ideas about national theatres and schools 
of dramatic art, and several schemes for theatrical manage- 
ment that almost came to something; he took an active 
part in the discussion over the regulation of the stage ; and 
he published a periodical, the Prompter, in which all his 
schemes, ideas, and criticisms found expression. Though in 
many ways he reflected current ideas, the keenness of his 
comment in some respects has not had the justice done it 
that it deserves. 

It may have been the moderate success of his friends, 
Mallet and Thomson, in tragedy, that fired his dramatic 
ambition again. Thomson's Sophonisba was produced in 
1730 and Mallet's Eurydice in 1731. 11 For his own 
attempt, Hill rewrote and (in his opinion) vastly improved 
the old play of Elf rid; under the name of Athelwold, it was 
accepted in 1731 by Drury-Lane. Hill left no stone un- 
turned to make the representation a success. He exhausted 
his entreaties and his flatteries to induce Wilks, then 
already near the end of his career, to take the title-role; 12 

ii Hill knew much better than Mallet what Mallet meant by the 
play; they discussed its moral in a brisk correspondence during the 
month of February. (See letters from Hill to Mallet February 6, 
1731, February 9, February 12, February 18, and February 23, in 
Hill's Works, I, 28, 31, 39, 43, 45). Mallet was not at that time, to 
quote Dr. Johnson, "too high to accept a prologue and epilogue from 
Aaron Hill, neither of which can be much commended." Few of 
the prologues and epilogues of the day did deserve any commendation. 

i 2 See letters from Hill to Wilks September 17 and 25 and Novem- 
ber 4, 1731 (Works, I, 69, 73, 96) ; and from Wilks to Hill, September 
24 and October 10 (Col. 1751). 



HILL AND THE STAGE 115 

it was a part sure to give pleasure to Mr. Wilks, and receive 
life from him; "the turn of it is amorous, inconstant, 
spirited, attractive, and distressful; it consists of fire and 
vivacity, endeared and tempered by the softer passions." 
But Wilks firmly declined to throw lustre on the character 
of the hero; he had all he could do to "rub through" his 
parts in comedy ; and Mr. Mills would, he was sure, do the 
part well with Mr. Hill 's assistance — it would be a wretched 
actor who could not do well with that ! 

Then Hill tried to arouse his interest in the dressing of 
the parts, by sending drawings for "a novelty in the old 
Saxon dresses," based on Verstegan's Antiquities, with 
possibly some Hillian variations. 13 This antiquarian con- 
cern for the correctness of the costumes was in itself a 
novelty. "To say nothing," he writes, "as to impropriety 
in the custom of dressing characters so far back in time 
after the common fashions of our days, it weakens proba- 
bility. ' ni There had been in the seventeenth century some 
feeble efforts at historical accuracy on the French stage, 
but they were abandoned, either for contemporary dress, 
or for the hero-costume of flying feathers, Louis XIV wigs, 
gilt armor, festooned skirts, gilt-fringed gloves, and so 
on. 15 Garrick, who "never willingly put on the Roman 
habit," 16 adopted a simple modern costume in tragedy. 
Hill 's hints about these Saxon dresses are tantalizing : there 
were furs, though Hill assures Wilks that they need not be 
real ; "as to the coronets, it was a custom of those times 

is Hill to Wilks; October 28, 1731. Worts, 1, 89. 

i* Hill had more to say about theatrical costume in the Prompter, 
No. 22: "An old Roman could never with any propriety be made to 
look like a modern Frenchman; nor a Dutch Burgomaster's wife 
like the Queen of Great Britain." 

is See Karl Mantzius, Hist, of Theatrical Art, Y, 227-228, 370, 391. 
Pepys, in his diary for March 8, 1664, mentions "garments like the 
Eomans" in a performance of Heraclius. 

ie Davies, Life of GarricTc, I 96. 



116 AAEON HILL 

for persons of high rank to wear them upon common as 
well as extraordinary occasions; but they must be distin- 
guished more than they are in the papers, to point out the 
different degrees; and worn in a more becoming position, 
higher off from the forehead, and a little leaning to one 
side." 17 To Hill's distress, Wilks kept silence on this 
subject. 

Mallet hastened to offer ' ' an engagement of his friends in 
favor of the tragedy"; a reading was held at Lord Tyrcon- 
nel's; 18 and Pope (who had reasons just then for being 
very complaisant) not only corrected the play, but promised 
to do his part in preparing the "expectations of people 
of the first rank" — a necessary precaution, "if one would 
wish a play that kind of fame which noise can give it." 19 
And just before the date of presentation, Pope had in a 
manner rounded up a very respectable audience: Lord 
Bathurst, Lord Burlington — "who comes on purpose to 
town," — another noble Lord (Peterborough, apparently), 
Gay and Sir William Wyndham.- 

The play was acted on December 10, and survived only 
three nights. "I need not inform you," Hill wrote to 
Pope, who, in a kind attempt to gloss over the failure, had 
reported the audience attentive and a few of the ladies even 
tearful, 21 ' ' how it dragged itself along for two lean nights 
after the first; as lame and wounded as the snake in your 
poem, but not half so delightfully. It would be affecta- 
tion, not modesty, to deny that I am nettled at the mon- 
strous reception which the Town has given this tragedy." 

17 October 28, 1731. Works, I, 91. 

is Hill to Tyrconnel, November 22. Works, I, 100. 

i9 Hill to Pope, September 30, 1731. Works, I, 82. 

20 Pope to Hill. Col. of 1751. The date should be December 9, 
not November 12. 

2i Pope to Hill. Col. of 1751. There and in Elwin and Courthope 's 
Pope, the letter is wrongly dated November 14 instead of December 14. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 117 

He has a faint hope that "some persons of rank and dis- 
tinction to bespeak plays and compel audiences may be 
kind enough to Athelwold to introduce him now and then 
into civiler company, for the sake of the company. It were 
a downright shame if these good people, who gave the 
tragedy all its merit of fine dressing and scening, should be 
suffered to lose their money, while the good-for-nothing 
author, who was guilty of the dull part of the entertain- 
ment, has lost nothing but his labor. But enough of this 
subject." 

No one who reads the play can fail to sympathize with 
the audience. The simple plot of the earlier play is com- 
plicated by the introduction of new episodes, which crowd 
the action so that the supposed unity of time becomes an 
absurdity. Athelwold is made the betrayer, before his 
marriage, of a certain Ethelinda, a lady of rank ; his reason, 
in fact, still prefers her to Elfrid, but he has married the 
latter chiefly, I suppose, because the king wanted her, and 
the deed offered him an unexampled opportunity to put 
himself in a position from which there could be no honor- 
able escape. One felt some sympathy for him when his 
deception of the king was the result of passionate love for 
Elfrid; but the combination of lying lover and lying sub- 
ject is too much for the most charitably disposed. Hill 
"raised" the king's character — Genest calls it putting him 
on stilts; no one ever talked like Edgar. 22 Elfrid, after 
discovering how Athelwold acts and hearing how the king 

22 He had onee seen Elfrid, in the crowd at his coronation, and he 
recalls it thus: 

"My raised eye 
Met her flashed charms, amidst a gazing crowd, 
Who, from the scaffolded cathedral's sides, 
Poured their bold looks upon me; greatness and languor 
Flowed in a softened radiance from her mien, 
Sweetness sat smiling on her humid eyeballs; 
And light-winged Fancy danced and flamed about her. ' ' 



118 AARON HILL 

speaks, wisely gets herself to a nunnery ; Ethelinda plunges 
a dagger into her bosom (behind the scenes), and Athel- 
wold (also behind the scenes) takes her body in his arms 
and leaps with it into the sea. It is but just to say that 
there are good lines in the play, and even one or two good 
speeches; and Pope, who was reported as having been 
"warmed" by it, may not have been warmed, as one at first 
suspects, merely by honest mirth. 23 

For the moment, Hill was determined to let the stage go 
its own way to destruction ; but events soon persuaded him 
to abandon that resolution. Booth, a few months before 
his death, disposed of one-half his share in the patent (re- 
newed in 1732 in the names of Cibber, Wilks, and Booth) 
and of all his power to John Highmore, a wealthy young 
man ambitious of histrionic distinction, who had "exposed 
himself," in Genest's phrase, by acting Lothario; after 
Booth's death, his widow sold the remaining half-share to 
Giffard of Goodman's Fields; and Mrs. Wilks delegated 
her power to the inexperienced Mr. Ellis. Colley Cibber 
grew disgusted at the importance of Highmore and the 
ignorance of Ellis, and appointed as his deputy his son 
Theophilus, "who wanted nothing but power to be as 
troublesome as any young man living." To rid himself of 

23 Pope said that ' ' no play had ever more warmed him ' ' (Booth to 
Hill, November 8, 1731, Col. of 1751). Ethelinda 's speech (Act IV) 
to Elf rid, after the latter has confirmed the tale of Athelwold's 
treachery, is good: 

"Farewell for ever. 

Kneel and pray Heaven, to whose indulgent hand 

You owe attraction, to increase and guard it ; 

Else will your destined ruin soon instruct you 

That he, who, tempted by your charms, betrayed 

His heart's vowed mistress, and deceived his king, 

Will for some new temptation give up you, 

And leave you subject to another's pity, 

As I am now to yours." 



HILL AND THE STAGE 119 

Theophilus, Highmore, at the end of the season of 1732-33, 
purchased the elder Cibber's share in the patent; but the 
discontented young Cibber drew all the actors after him 
to the Haymarket, and left Highmore to open Drury-Lane 
in September with such raw recruits as he could collect 
from the country theatres. The town was thrown into 
parties, and the two patentees joined forces against the 
seceders. Persuasion failed; an attempt to secure the in- 
terference of the Lord Chamberlain also failed; then the 
Vagrant Act was put into operation against the actors, and 
one of them, Harper, was arrested. The outcome of his 
case was watched with interest on all sides, for it was 
another test of the patent monopoly. That monopoly was 
again proved, as in Steele's case, to be ineffective, for 
Harper was discharged on the ground that he was a free- 
holder in Surrey and a housekeeper in Westminster. 24 
This was in November, 1733. By the following March, 
Highmore, discouraged by his losses, gave up the struggle, 
and sold out to Fleetwood, a man of fortune and fashion, 
who persuaded the seceders to return to Drury-Lane.- 5 

During this period of storm and stress, Hill's mind and 
his pen were busy. He began in January, 1733, by re- 
vising a tragedy for Victor, and writing a farce at his 
request. 26 Then he grew interested in Highmore 's manage- 
ment, and was deterred from buying the other shares in 
the patent merely by lack of funds. In April he was con- 
sidering, apparently on Victor's suggestion, some arrange- 

24 Cibber reflected pertinently on this case ' ' that if acting plays 
without license did not make the performers vagabonds unless they 
wandered from their habitations so to do, how particular was the case 
of us three late managing actors, at the Theatre-Eoyal, who in twenty 
years before had paid, upon an average, at least twenty thousand 
pounds to be protected (as actors) from a law that has not since 
appeared to be against us." Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 284. 

25 See Genest, III, 373 f ., for the details of these transactions. 

26 The farce was to be called The Maggot. It was not performed. 



120 AARON HILL 

ment with Highmore : "I am so much rather inclined to 
unite my endeavors with Mr. Highmore 's, for raising and 
establishing Drury-Lane to and in a condition it has not 
yet been acquainted with, than to open a new house (and 
to that end either enlarging the little one in the Haymarket, 
or building another in a better place) that I will not think 
of anything but a union with Mr. Highmore, if you can 
find, upon giving yourself the trouble of a conversation 
or two on the subject, that it is practicable." "Will Victor 
sound Mr. Booth and Mr. Ellis as to their willingness to 
farm out their shares to him 1 If the patent were all High- 
more 's, he would give him a thousand pounds a year for 
half his profits, and would "add to that company some 
actors, who have never been seen, heard of, or thought of; 
and yet at their very first appearance shall be able to put 
an end to the Town's complaint for the loss of the great 
men of the stage. ' ' He would like to know whether Victor 
has had any conversation with Highmore, because some 
gentlemen are desirous of being concerned with' him in a 
design of his own, and he must decide quickly. 27 

Immediately after the defection of the actors, Hill told 
Highmore what he thought of the capacity of actor-man- 
agers: "If to have surfeited the town with a choking suc- 
cession of absurdities; if to have dressed . . . Mr. Cibber 
and his string of comedies; if to consider the new pieces 
which are offered them in no other light than whether their 
authors will make interest to support them ; if to revive so 
few old ones that . . . our audiences are able to bear part 
with the actors ; and, finally, if not to have found, made, or 
left one promising genius for the stage to succeed to the 
fame of such notable instructors : — if these are the marks 
of a capacity for directing a theatre, then the players have 

27 These letters are found in Victor's Hist, of the Theatres, II, 174- 
193. They are dated January 1, January 5, March 22, April 5, 
April 9. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 121 

a title that can never be questioned." Surely the stage 
should be in the hands of those competent to instruct actors. 
He then offers advice for the fall performances, and adds 
that he has "a considerable variety of new and humorous 
entertainments in his hands, prepared with the idea of 
attempting a new theatre"; but he prefers to purchase 
some share in the patent — "about which Mr. Victor tells 
me you have no exception to my treating with the ladies. ' ' 2S 
Highmore must have been indifferent. On August 31, 
Hill writes to an unidentified correspondent 29 of a design 
to establish ' ' an academical theatre for improving the taste 
of the stage, and training up young actors and actresses for 
the supply of the patent theatres. ' ' The company is formed 
and could open in November, with "a race of plays and 
entertainments so new in themselves and the manner in 
which they will be acted that the success will, I think, be 
insured by the novelty." He had been offered a patent 
at 400 pounds a year, and was about to accept it when it 
occurred to him that his correspondent might secure a 
license. He intends to publish a pamphlet explaining the 
design, and proposing a subscription for six nights to a 
"fashionable folly" and a tragedy. 30 But all this must 
have fallen through, for during the autumn, we find Hill 
acting as adviser to Highmore 's raw company, and mark- 

28 July 5, 1733. Works, I, 129. 

29 ' <■ Mr. B- - -r. ' ' Works, I, 135, 

so In an anonymous pamphlet, A Proposal for the better Regulation 
of the Stage, published in January, 1732, there are ideas similar to 
some of these expressed by Hill: the stage has been too long under 
the tyranny of the players; it is not strange that the acting is so poor 
when a promising young player is dreaded by the management as a 
possible rival; the actor should be regularly educated. The author 
suggests a new theatre, managed by a company of stockholders — 
men of quality, taste, figure, and fortune. 



122 AARON HILL 

ing the parts that were sent to him for that purpose. 31 It 
was a thankless task. There was a strong current of preju- 
dice running against Drury-Lane, which Hill was afraid 
would increase " to an insurmountable degree of odium very- 
soon, unless the Patentees can be prevailed upon to see 
their own interest in giving up their unpopular pretensions 
to prosecute the people who are universally thought to be 
better actors than their own, and protected, without doubt, 
by much more powerful hands than the Patentees are 
aware of." 32 

Fleetwood's purchase of the patent ended Hill's hope 
of an active business interest in Drury-Lane affairs. But 
the power of criticism remained; and within a few months 
he had launched his theatrical periodical, The Prompter. 
The first number was published on November 12, 1734, and 
the paper continued to appear twice a week until July 2, 
1736. Associated with Hill in the enterprise was William 
Popple, 33 who had contributed to Savage's Miscellany in 
1726, and who had recently had a play or two produced. 
Hill did not especially admire Popple's work in the 
Prompter — he thought his friend's genius more strikingly 
displayed in other directions. 34 Literary tradition ascribes 
the papers signed "P" to Popple and those signed "B" 
to Hill; after the 132d number, there is no signature. 35 

3i See in Hill's Worls, J, the following letters written in 1733: 
October 8 (138), October 9 (146), October 15 (149), October 19 
(152), October 24 (155), October 24 (159), October 31 (162), Octo- 
ber 31 (165), November 3 (168), November 16 (183). Mr. Bridge- 
water was told that in Tamerlane he ought to "speak like an angel 
and move like a god." That was not very practical advice; but Hill's 
description of Mrs. Porter's interpretation of the part of Imoinda in 
Oroonoko is both very interesting and full of practical hints. 

32 Letter of November 6 to some author. WorTcs, 1, 171. 

33 See ante, ch. II. 

34 Forster MS., July 10, 1746. 

35 Thomas Dale wrote to Dr. Birch (Birch MSS. 4304) that he 
thought James Ealph had a hand in the Prompter. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 123 

"B," as the author explains in the second number, stands 
for Broomstick, not Blockhead: "I will sweep away no 
folly, abuse, or presumption till I have prompted them over 
and over ; but if after such fair and repeated caveats, there 
shall be found any reprobate obstinacy that despises my 
word in the ear, or calls in question my authority, I shall 
. . . show no regard to distinction of persons, but sweep the 
front and side boxes with as little ceremony and respect as 
is shown before the curtain by broomsticks of inferior 
degree to obtruding apples and orange peels." 

He chose for his motto, "All the world's a stage, and all 
the men and women merely players"; when we daily see 
so many act amiss, can there be any doubt that a good 
prompter is wanting? The stage prompter never appears 
on the stage, but "has some influence over everything that 
is transacted upon it. . . . Nor can I think it any dishonor, 
since the stage has so long been transcribing the world, that 
the world should now make reprisals, and look as freely 
into the theatres. Let their managers, therefore, be upon 
their guard; and their dependents, tragic or comic, take 
good heed to their parts ; since there is from this day for- 
ward arisen a prompter, without doors, who hath a cat-call 
as well as a whistle; and whenever the players grow flat, 
will himself make bold to be musical." 36 

The specifically theatrical purpose with which the paper 
was thus started remains prominent throughout. But other 
subjects were handled: there were philosophical papers, 
most of them signed " P, ' ' — typical eighteenth century dis- 
cussions about the nature of evil, the origin of moral virtue, 
the evidences of order and harmony in the universe, free- 
will, chance, and the like; 37 papers touching upon social 
and economic problems, such as the evils of debtors' 

36 NO. 1. 

37Nos. 69, 70, 73, 74, 77, 78, 86, 89, 90, 151, 153, 156. See ch. VI 
for a controversy with the Grub Street Journal, ostensibly over deism. 



124 AARON HILL 

prisons, slavery, and the development of Georgia; 38 and 
papers of literary criticism, — the beauties of the epic (illus- 
trated by extracts from Hill's unpublished epic of Gideon), 
and the relative merits of rhyme and blank verse (also 
illustrated by Hill's own efforts). 39 A very small group 
deals with politics, chiefly the evils of party spirit; 40 and 
another group preaches short sermons on social morality, 
ranging from the advantages of cleanliness or of the due 
submission of wives to husbands, to the wickedness of hunt- 
ing or duelling; they are very "elegant" and very plati- 
tudinous, and several of them would furnish admirable 
texts for the lectures of the modern eugenist or suffragist. 41 
But the stage papers are both most interesting in them- 
selves and most important historically. Unfortunately, the 
Prompter is rare, unattractive with its double columns of 
fine print, and burdened with many dull papers. Pick out 
the essays of dramatic criticism, however, read them in 
connection with what was going on, realize that they pre- 
ceded a crisis, — and they will appear of some value as 
documents in literary history. If carefully selected, re- 
arranged, repunctuated, respelled, — edited perhaps in the 
old unscrupulous way that made excisions without com- 

38 Nos. 18', 36, 40, 87, 124, 135, 143, 163, 167, 168. On practical 
grounds, Hill gave slavery a qualified approval as the less of two 
evils in the case of Georgia; better limit the importation of slaves 
than prohibit it (No. 87). "B" is the author of two papers making 
an appeal on behalf of debtors; he estimates the number then con- 
fined at 12,000; points out their slight chance of escape from disease; 
the uneconomic waste of good material; and the tremendous expense 
in money alone of the system — 390,000 1. spent in law-charges and 
jailors' fees by debtors and creditors. 

39 Nos. 28, 48, 59, 71, 72, 76, 96, 148, 149, 154, 164, 172, 173. 

40 Nos. 4, 12, 27, 83. 

4i Nos. 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 25, 26, 31, 32, 43, 49, 52, 58, 61, 63, 65, 
75, 82, 85, 97, 121, 157, 160, 161. Most of these are by "P," and 
justify Hill's disparaging opinion of Popple's gifts as an essayist. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 125 

punction, — they would form a pleasant little volume illus- 
trating the stage of their day. And the criticism they 
embody has received the praise of being the best con- 
temporary criticism of an interesting situation. 42 This dis- 
cussion will treat them as a group, and attempt a classifica- 
tion that may bring out their significance. They deal 
with the true function of the stage and its proper sphere 
of influence, and with its actual influence for evil ; and they 
try to place the responsibility for that evil influence, and to 
suggest remedies. Similar opinions are scattered through 
the plays, periodicals, letters, and pamphlets of the day, but 
the Prompter's value is that it focusses them all. 

There is, of course, no conception of the drama purely as 
an art. Its function is to combine amusement with in- 
struction; and precept and example — the methods of phi- 
losophy and of history — are both at the service of the 
dramatic author. The Athenians understood its function : 
they made tragedy a school of wisdom and comedy a school 
of reproof. And the stage should teach manners as well as 
morals ; it is the mirror held up to the world that the world 
may see and correct its deformities. This was the ideal. 
How far did the contemporary stage realize it? It was a 
school of vice, not virtue. Our tragedy, says the Prompter, 
corrupts the mind and breathes into the soul rash revenge 
and wanton love; our comedy, though it pretends to re- 
prove finical dress in youth, misanthropy, pedantry in 
ladies, and the like, actually tends towards conjugal infi- 
delity, foolish indulgence of wives, and ridicule of old age. 43 
Fielding observes of the heroes of some plays of the day 
that they are "commonly eminent for those very talents 
which not only bring men to the gallows, but enable them 
to make an heroic figure when they are there." 44 

42 Nicholson, Struggle for a Free Stage, 67, note. 

43 See Nos. 30, 79, 80, 105, 109, 113, 134, 171. 

44 Tom Jones, book VIII, 1. 



126 AARON HILL 

So much for the plays. What of the actors? We have 
already seen that Hill held very positive views about the 
art of acting. In the Prompter he does not as a rule single 
out individuals for his criticism; but Colley Cibber and 
James Quin come in for some hard knocks. Cibber, under 
the pseudonym of "Outis," had been expressing in the 
Grub Street Journal a very favorable opinion of his own 
abilities, and Hill, in a comment on the letter, declares that 
"Mr. Quin must be confessed to be sometimes wrong in his 
tragic characters; Mr. Cibber to be always so." Nature, 
by voice, figure, and conception, limited Cibber to be a 
comedian — "he was born to be laughed at." He praises 
his "exquisite propriety of affectation, where he squeaks, 
bows, ogles, dresses, laughs, or any other way exerts the 
comedian, in Sir Courtly and Lord Foppington." But 
when in Syphax or Richard III, Hill sees, "in place of 
menaces and majestic transports, the distorted heavings of 
an unjointed caterpillar," he must conclude him unfitted 
for tragedy. 45 As for Quin — "Mr. All-weight" — he was 
told that to be always deliberate and solemn was as much 
of an error as never to be so. 46 Cibber laughed at the 
caterpillar, but Quin was angry, and "meeting Mr. Hill in 
the Court of Requests, a scuffle ensued between them, which 
ended in the exchange of a few blows." 47 

Other strongly personal comments Hill wisely confined to 
dead actors, and some of his descriptions of their acting 
are very graphic. That of Booth is often quoted: 48 "Two 
advantages distinguished him in the strongest light from 
the rest of his fraternity: he had learning to understand 
perfectly whatever it was his part to speak, and judgment 

45 No. 3. 
46No. 92. 

■"Davies, Life of Garrick, I, 138. 

48 Published in Victor's Life of Booth, 1733, and in Hill's WorTcs, 
II, 115. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 127 

to know how far it agreed or disagreed with the character. 
Hence arose a peculiar grace. . . . He could soften and slide 
over with a kind of elegant negligence the improprieties in 
a part he acted, while ... he would dwell with energy upon 
the beauties, as if he exerted a latent spirit, which had been 
kept back for such an occasion, that he might alarm, 
awaken, and transport in those places only where the 
dignity of his own good sense could be supported by tftat of 
his author. . . . The passions in comedy were not strong 
enough to excite his fire; and what seemed want of quali- 
fication was only absence of impression. One might have 
said of him in the Scripture phrase, 'He is not dead, but 
sleepeth.' ... He had a talent at discovering the passions 
where they lay hid in some celebrated parts, having been 
buried under a prescription of rantings and monotony, by 
the practise of other actors. When he had discovered, he 
soon grew able to express 'em. And his secret . . . was an 
association, or adaptation of his look to his voice ; by which 
artful imitation of nature, the variations in the sound of 
his words gave propriety to every change in his counte- 
nance. So that among players in whom it is common to hear 
pity pronounced with a frown upon the forehead, sorrow 
expressed by a grin upon the eye, and anger thundered out 
with a look of unnatural serenity, it was Mr. Booth's 
peculiar felicity to be heard and seen the same, whether 
as the pleased, the grieved, the pitying, the reproachful, or 
the angry. One would almost be tempted to borrow the 
aid of a very bold figure, and . . . affirm that the blind might 
have seen Mm in his voice, and the deaf have heard him 
in his visage." 

Mr. Booth was Hamlet's solemn half and Mr. Wilks his 
gay half. The latter 's method of delivering the speech of 
Hamlet to the ghost was ineffective: 49 he hurried through 
« No. 100. 



128 AARON HILL 

the whole scene without pause; the words, "By Heaven, I 
say away ! " he addressed to the ghost, and advanced against 
it with drawn sword, not perceiving the "shocking inde- 
corum" of drawing one's sword against one's father's 
ghost. The Prompter would have Hamlet speak in low 
amazement when he sees the ghost, "fixing his eyes with a 
kind of riveted doubt"; after the words "angels and min- 
isters of grace," he should stop a moment, and then com- 
mence -a slow approach, accompanied by broken sentences in 
a voice struggling against the oppression of a growing 
terror ; ' ' questionable ' ' should receive marked emphasis, for 
he draws courage from the reflection that the ghost is a 
shape he may question; he kneels at the word "father," 
anxiously awaits the effect of each of the names he adjures 
him with, and in the "0, answer me," his voice should 
express a sort of "desperate impatience." 

The Lear comments are interesting. Had a certain 
player who acted Lear some time since, says the Prompter, 
heeded Shakespeare 's description of anger in Henry V, the 
house would not have remained cold. This Lear was calm 
and resigned; delivered his passionate outburst at Regan's 
reception of him with a look of affliction and patient re- 
straint ; and ' ' upon every occasion that required the sharp 
and the elevated, the stretched note and the exclamatory, 
the king mistook, like a dog in a dream, that does but sigh 
when he thinks he is barking." Instead of grinding out 
his curse of Regan from between his teeth, he advanced to 
the foot-lights, knelt, and pronounced it with the calmness 
of a prayer, thus destroying the pity of the audience for 
him, and scandalizing them by his serene malice. 50 

If Hill refrained from mentioning names, he did not 
hesitate to lump together the whole company of players 
as "the very worst set of actors that ever disgraced the 

so No. 95. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 129 

nation." Their faults are ranting, affectation, mouthing, 
bellowing, and whining, — the last the peculiar crime of the 
ladies, who probably wish thereby, to create an effect of 
innocence, and succeed only in being innocent of meaning 
and "inarticulately diverting, like infancy." 51 They are 
all so indolent that they cease to act as soon as they cease to 
speak, and amuse themselves by examining the audience, 
until they hear their cue; "at which, like soldiers on the 
word of command, they start suddenly back to their 
postures, tone over the unanimating sound of their lesson, 
and then (like a caterpillar that has erected itself at the 
touch of a twig) shrink back to their crawl and their quiet ; 
and enjoy their full ease till next rousing." They cannot 
even die with judgment and decency. Hill has seen a 
"periwig-pated fellow" shake a tempest of powder about 
him, and fall "like a chimney in a high wind, not only 
frighting but blinding all who stood under his ruins. ' ' 52 

The players address to the audience whatever they should 
keep to themselves, and retain for themselves what they 
ought to bestow on the audience. In a soliloquy they 
should look anywhere except at the audience. If, when an 
actor "comes forward to the line of lamps on the edge of 
the stage, and after sending his eyes like his gentlemen- 
ushers into the pit or the boxes, begins to tell the spectators, 
' I am alone ! ' " some honest lover of truth should call out, 
"That's a lie, for you look in the faces of twelve hundred 
people who are able to contradict you," — that would be 
more effective than cat-calls. 53 They are afraid of express- 
ing passion. The Prompter urged an actress who had a 
part of "distressful anguish" to look sorrowful: "0, dear 

si No. 99. 

52 No. 62. 

53 No. 104. The numbers dealing with acting are 3, 56, 62, 64, 66, 
67, 92, 95, 99, 100, 103, 104, 113, 117, 118, 129. Most of them are 
signed "B. " 

10 



130 AARON HILL 

Sir ! anything but making faces in tragedy ! ' ' She was in 
fact too much rouged, he remarks, to permit crying in good 
earnest. 

Hill did not confine himself to destructive criticism. He 
had a carefully elaborated theory of the art of acting, of 
which the Prompter gives samples both in prose and verse. 
The poem (in revised form) was afterwards published sepa- 
rately in 1746, and the prose essay 54 was considered valu- 
able enough to be reprinted with comments in 1821. To 
depict the passions one must have some knowledge of them ; 
let the actor first conceive the passion of anger, for in- 
stance; his body will fall into appropriate attitudes; and 
when the eye is inflamed and the muscles braced, he cannot 
help speaking angrily. This power of conception is, of 
course, the gift of the imaginative artist — a fact Hill does 
not sufficiently emphasize. But stripped of its verbiage 
and its strange pseudo-scientific terms, Hill's theory seems 
to be in accord with the modern theory of the emotions: 
make the appropriate gestures, assume the appropriate 
attitudes, and you will feel the emotion; the frown and 
the clenched fist come first and the anger follows. Why he 
thought of embodying his ideas in verse is more than one 
can imagine. "What is a little oddly phrased but quite 
intelligible, in the prose, becomes simply absurd in verse : 

" On the raised neck, oft moved, but ever straight, 

Turn your unbending head with easy state." 
" Spread be your opening breast; oft changed your face; 

Step with a slow severity of grace; 

Pausingly warm, significantly rise, 

And affectation's empty swell despise." 55 

54 WorJcs, IV, 355 f . 

55 No. 113. These lines inspired a poet to write "The Praise of 
Tobacco, in imitation of Mr. A. H - - l's style, ' ' Gent. Mag., VI, 547, 
September, 1736: 

' ' On the raised lip, oft moved, obliquely straight, 



HILL AND THE STAGE 131 

A more poetical expression than any in the poem is one in 
prose: "The passions are what keys are in a harpsichord. 
If they are aptly and skilfully touched, they will vibrate 
their different notes to the heart, and awaken in it the 
music of humanity." 

There is no question that the acting of tragedy did need 
reform. When Charles Macklin, later a rival of Garrick, 
engaged with Rich about 1725, he spoke, he says, "so 
familiar, and so little in the hoity-toity tone of the tragedy 
of that day, that the manager told me I had better go to 
grass for another year or two." 56 And Davies' account of 
the effect of Garrick 's acting throws light on the old manner 
that excited the wrath of the Prompter: "Mr. Garrick's 
easy and familiar, yet forcible style, in speaking and acting, 
at first threw the critics into some hesitation concerning the 
novelty as well as propriety of his manner. They had been 
long accustomed to an elevation of the voice, with a sudden 
mechanical depression of its tones, calculated to excite 
admiration and to entrap applause. To the just modula- 
tion of the words, and concurring expression of the features 
from the genuine workings of nature, they had been 
strangers, at least for some time." 57 Of Garrick, Mr. "All- 
weight" Quin said that "if the young fellow was right, he 
and the rest of the players had been all wrong. ' ' 58 

Let the glazed tube recline, with easy state ; 

Pointedly look 

Puff, with a slow severity of grace, 
Pausingly wise," etc. 
Hill's revised version is much less absurd, 
ss Cook, Memoirs of Charles MacTclin, 99. 

57 Life of Garrick, I, 40. Davies says (I, ch. 13) that Hill was 
"almost the only gentleman who labored assiduously to understand 
the art of acting, and who took incessant pains to communicate his 
knowledge of it to others. ' ' He speaks of his ' ' just and important ' ' 
sentiments on acting, and of his admirable lessons to Rich's per- 
formers. 

ss Davies, Life of Garrick, I, 44. 



132 AARON HILL 

The audience needed prompting as much as the actors. 59 
Their manners were often more suited to bear-gardens than 
to his Majesty's theatres. The Prompter was present one 
night at ''his Majesty's dramatical bear-garden, to observe 
the success of a baiting, called 'Every Man in his Folly.' 
. . . The audience, from the footmen's gallery to the boxes 
beneath them, so prevented by their noise any use of their 
understanding, that it was impossible either to acquit or 
condemn from anything that we heard on the theatre." 
When a new play comes on, three-fourths of the audience 
entertain themselves for the evening with a mob-scene of 
their own, and the author, like a Presbyterian reprobate, 
is predestined to be damned. Applause might compete 
with hisses, but not with hisses, cat-calls, shouts, and 
"horse-laughs." He begs the boisterous young men with 
cudgels to "hold themselves contented at Hockley-in-the- 
Hole." 60 

The Prompter was not alone in its criticism. James 
Ralph 61 tells how the tradesmen in the pit, in their im- 
patience to get good seats, bring their unfinished meals tied 
up in colored handkerchiefs, and neglect Mark Antony for 
the leg of a pullet, or drown Monimia's distress in a glass 
of sack. The boxes whisper, nod, talk scandal, and conduct 
intrigues ; others get on the stage and jostle the performers. 
In the gallery the people are well enough behaved, except 
that they are liberal of orange-peel to the stage and the 
pit; but the footmen's gallery disturbs everything. The 
Weekly Register 62 describes the footmen lolling over boxes, 

59 Hill was much pleased with Garrick 's acting, especially with his 
lack of affectation (letter to Mallet, April 20, 1744, Works, II, 34). 
Not that he thought him in need of no further instruction; he offered 
to mark all the occasions for the "most alarming attitudes" in 
Othello (letter to Garrick, October 14, 1746, II, 266). 

eo See nos. 20, 136, 139. 

6i The Taste of the Town, 1732, p. 130 f. 

62 March 25, 1732. Quoted in the Gent. Mag., II, 661. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 133 

where they are keeping places, taking snuff, humming, 
laughing, talking across the house, and interrupting the 
play with their bear-garden quarrels in the upper gallery. 
Joseph Andrews, who "led the opinion of all the other 
footmen at an opera, ' ' was ' ' a little too forward in riots at 
the playhouse." 63 Tom Jones went with Mr. Nightingale 
and his company to a "new play, which was to be acted 
that evening, and which a very large party had agreed to 
damn, from some dislike they had taken to the author"; 
Sophia left terrified at the end of the first act, for "being 
a new play, at which two large parties met, the one to 
damn and the other to applaud, a violent uproar and an 
engagement between the two parties" arose. 64 Lord 
Dapper, in the Historical Register, 65 thought himself a very 
good judge of plays, though he spent half the time in the 
green-room talking to the actresses, and the other half in 
the boxes talking with the women of quality. "Thou art 
a sweet judge of plays, indeed," comments the Prompter in 
the play. 

But what of the plays? "What did the turbulent audi- 
ence like? Pantomime and entertainments, of course, — 
"those disgraces of our stage, those wild triumphs of 
folly." 66 At the end of the 6th number of the Prompter 
appears an advertisement for Common Sense, hunted or 
strayed out of the theatres of the city, and supposed to be 
lurking in some remote region. Not until a year and a 

63 Joseph Andrews, bk. I, ch. 4. For an account of one of the worst 
of these riots, see Gent. Mag., for March, 1737: the footmen, denied 
entrance to the gallery because of their rudeness, broke open doors, 
and wounded twenty-five persons. 

ei Tom Jones, book XIII, ch. 9. See also Jonathan Wild, book I, 
ch. 6. 

65 Act I, near the end. 

66 See nos, 6, 12, 35, 105, 109, 117, 125, 127, 128, 149, 166. For 
comments on the opera, which was a dangerous rival of tragedy, see 
nos. 7, 14, 23, 37, 106, 155. These are mostly by "P." 



134 AARON HILL 

half later is the lost stray discovered, in Fielding's theatre, 
armed with wit and satire rather too forcible to be graceful. 
Of new plays, tragedy has little chance of a hearing, and 
comedy and farce must be combined with some entertain- 
ment before the audience will suffer it. The poor author 
sees a battery of pantomime levelled against his play ; and 
worse still, he has to contribute to the expense of the show 
that is destroying the taste for plays — to pay for a knife to 
cut his own throat. The stage is peopled with "monsters, 
tumblers, ladder-dancers, Italian shadows, dumb-shows, 
buffoonery, and nonsense " ; it will soon become a place like 
Sadler's Wells, Bartholomew Fair, Fawkes's Dexterity of 
Hand, or Cups and Balls. Surely the songs would lose 
none of their merit, if a little meaning were mixed with 
(their mirth. But Hill himself tried the experiment; the 
managers would none of his Daraxes; ' ' in things . . . which 
have a chain and dependence of scenes," they said, "a poet 
expects more than in good manners he ought from the at- 
tention and patience of persons of quality; whereas in 
grotesque entertainments . . . there being neither beginning, 
middle, nor end, the company are held down to no indecent 
necessity, but may look on or off at their pleasure." I see 
no reason for the managers ' refusal, on this score, of Hill 's 
musical entertainments — they hold one down to no indecent 
necessity. 67 

67 Contemporary literature is full of satirical references to Kich and 
the pantomimes: James Miller's Harlequin Horace (1732) is dedicated 
to J - - n E - - h, who ' ' first introduced among us the present delicate 
and amazing taste in our diversions"; The Dramatic Poetaster, a 
Vision (1732) describes many of the shows: 

' ' There strong no-meanings flash upon the sight, 

Baboons enchant and crocodiles delight; 

Then cats are eloquent and sticks are wise; 

Sense starts from raree-shows and art from pyes. ' ' 
The Grub Street Journal (No. 269) has a burlesque satire on enter- 
tainments called The Tower of Babel; Fielding's Tumbledown Dick, 



HILL AND THE STAGE 135 

As to the managers, Hill is hopeless of their improve- 
ment. He excepts from his condemnation Fielding and 
Giffard, who were running the Haymarket and Goodman's 
Fields; both these unlicensed houses are better managed 
than the patent theatres. The patentees, Rich and Fleet- 
wood, whom he admires for some admirable qualities, he 
dubs "Lunny" and "Lightwit," and declares that there 
is little to choose between them in the matter of general 
incompetence. It is a case of "Arcades ambo — id est, 
rascals both" — 

" Both managers, and both alike inspired 
To act what neither sense nor wit required." 

On the plan of Virgil's Third Pastoral, Hill gives a dia- 
logue between Lunny, Lightwit, and Common Sense. 
Lightwit is discovered reading: 

" Lunny: What read you, Lightwit? Pantomime, no doubt? 
Lightwit : No, Lunny, guess again, for there you're out." 

It appears that he is reading tragedy — to get material for 
a burlesque. Common Sense agrees to be referee in a 
contest of skill, in which the stakes are monkey-skins, dog- 
skins, and other transformation scene properties. Lightwit 
boasts that the audience claps his "squeaking pig" ; Lunny, 
that he can lay his own eggs and bring forth Harlequins. 
Common Sense awards them both the monkey-skin. 68 

or Phaeton in the Suds satirized Rich; see also Gent. Mag., II, 662, 
III, 179, and Ralph's Taste of the Town, eh. III. Hill's SnaJce in 
the Grass (Dramatic WorTcs, II) is a burlesque of pantomimes: 
among other details, Tragedy is routed through a trap-door by Harle- 
quin; the Genius of the stage, a mixed Scaramouche and Columbine, 
suggests the introduction of a dancing cat or two to make tragedy go 
down with the audience; the Poet cries out "wooden swords, wooden 
heads, wooden management." 

68 No. 132. See also nos. 35, 50, 51, 53, 56, 100, 117, 123, 127, 128, 
132. Most of these are by Hill. Davies describes Fleetwood as a 
gentleman of elegant manners, but addicted to gambling and to low 



136 AARON HILL 

The managers are improvident as well as incompetent: 
as a result of their failure to form plans in the summer for 
the coming winter, the same monotonous succession of 
tragedies appears every season, and for variety an equally 
tiresome succession of the same old comedies — "in liquid, 
burnings or in dry to dwell, is all the sad variety of hell." 
They have a right to seek their profit; but in seeking it, 
they have no right to use their patent for purposes it was 
not originally intended for. Hill suggests an amendment 
to the statute of Elizabeth : " A vagrant, in the plainest and 
most rational sense of the word, is a wanderer. Not only 
he who strolls from his place of habitation, but he also 
who wanders out of the sphere of his understanding, is a 
stroller. . . . How happy, therefore, would it have been for 
the stage, had there been added to the act a clause, declar- 
ing all such managers to be vagrants and liable to the 
merited correction, who, without the pretensions of genius 
or judgment, should presume to stroll into dramatical 
regions, and impudently assume the direction of a province 
wherein they have never been naturalized." 

What constructive criticism did the Prompter offer for 
the whole deplorable situation ? Hill is sometimes inclined 
to find the true root of decay in the players' gross ignor- 
ance of their art, and in the Town's indulgence towards 
both vicious plays and bad acting; and as one remedy, he 
suggests a subscription for a new theatre. The best ac- 
count of this scheme is found, not in the Prompter, but in 
a letter to Thomson (September 5, 1735) : no experiment 
can be made in the old theatres, under their present man- 
agement; Hill would like to hazard a trial in a new, with 
the support of some "untaxed encouragers, " and establish 

company; lie made fair promises and broke them; bailiffs were often 
in possession of his theatre towards the close of his managership 
(Life of GarricTc, I, 60-61). 



HILL AND THE STAGE 137 

a "tragic academy for extending and regulating theatrical 
diversions, and for instructing and educating actors in the 
practise of the dramatic passions." If the Prince could 
only be engaged to put his name at the head of a list of 
those willing to countenance the undertaking! But the 
Prince could not. 69 

Other efforts were being made to reform the theatre. A 
bill for restraining the number and abuses of the play- 
houses was introduced by Sir John Barnard in the House 
of Commons, March 5, 1735, only to be withdrawn after 
much discussion on April 30. The immediate occasion of 
the measure was the outcry raised by the projection of a 
new theatre in St. Martin's le Grand. A pamphlet 70 that 
came out in support of the bill argued that any increase in 
the number of theatres — especially in a district full of 
apprentices — was dangerous, for apprentices were not im- 
proved by seeing how ancient heroes made love, or men of 
rank plotted against the virtue of the daughters and wives 
of citizens; and in the entertainments they saw something 
ten times more immoral. But Hill mentions, as a report that 
meets credit among thinking men, that the announcement 
of this new theatre was merely a strategem of one of the 
patentees to incense the magistrates, and pave the way for 
the establishment of "his throne (and that of his brother 
monarch) in the empire of nonsense, by a Parliamentary 
exclusion of all other pretenders." ^Regulation of some 
sort, he agrees, is necessary, for it is useless to hope for a 
change in the taste or an enlargement of the understanding 
or the morality of the managers. But why merely restrain 
the number of corrupt and ridiculous theatres ? Why not 
remodel and correct the abuses of the old? Put the direc- 
tion in qualified hands, under regulation, not restraint; 

69 Works, II, 126. Hill refers again to the plan as one that had to 
be given up, in a letter to Thomson of May 20, 1736, Worls, I, 233. 
™ A Seasonable Examination, etc., 1735. 



138 AARON HILL 

and do not allow any patentee to suppose he deserves a 
monopoly to the exclusion of better capacities. One clause 
in the bill provided that no person should act, represent, 
or perform, any tragedy, comedy, opera, play, farce, or 
other entertainment for gain, hire, or reward, except the 
holders of patents or their deputies; and of this the 
Prompter says, "There is no possibility the stage should 
aver subsist in this kingdom if authors and actors are sub- 
jected without control to the caprice or ignorance of any 
men who may hereafter look upon a patent only as a 
proper security upon which to lay out their money." 

After the suspension of the bill, the Prompter felt at 
liberty to speak freely, without disrespect to Parliament. 
This was Hill's plan: to deprive the present "licentious 
and licensed incumbents" of a power they were not worthy 
of, and then institute an inquiry to discover how it might 
be placed in abler hands. "When such blunder-headed 
undertakers as these cry out to the public authority to 
protect their incapacities from the correction of better 
examples, I can consider it in no other light than as one 
of the silliest of all those impudent farces, which have been 
acted by, for, or under them." Rich had tried to prove 
his actors rogues several years before ; a fool at the head of 
rogues was dangerous and absurd. As for the Act of 
Elizabeth invoked for that purpose, it was directed only 
against the abuse of the players' art. The stage is corrupt ; 
will it be reformed by giving to those who have corrupted 
it already the power to corrupt it further? Permit free 
competition, cries Hill. If theatres are allowed to mul- 
tiply, the wisest among the managers will surely silence the 
silliest. "Prohibit the acting any farce, harlequinery, 
buffoonery," or other dancing, singing, dumb, or deserving- 
to-be-dumb entertainment, or anything beyond plain 
tragedy or comedy, except only in the royal and licensed 



HILL AND THE STAGE 139 

theatres." This would leave their Delilahs to the present 
Samsons of the stage, and bestow on their rivals only what 
they have parted with already. The Town would be 
pleased — the gay and fashionable might meet at the "sign 
of the License," and the wise and serious could go else- 
where. Either the new theatres would die for want of en- 
couragement, or their success would be due to the merits 
of the play and the actors; and in that case would react 
favorably on the patentees, and shame them out of their 
corruption and ignorance. 71 

The Prompter finally came to a close in July, 1736, less 
than a year before the passage of the Licensing Act. Hill 
had noted with approval Fielding's productions at the 
Little Theatre in the Haymarket, and had pointed out that 
while the patent houses were competing in spectacle and 
dumb-show, a " gentleman, under the disadvantages of a 
very bad house, with scarce an actor, and at very little 
expense, by the single power of satire, wit, and common 
sense, has been able to run a play for 24 nights, which is 
now but beginning to rise in the opinion of the town." 
Pasquin actually had a run of fifty nights, and was suc- 
ceeded by the Historical Register, another keen satire on 
Walpole. Fielding's satire did not bring about the Licens- 
ing Act; a contributing cause was certainly the jealousy 
felt by the patentees for the success of the unlicensed 
theatres ; but it was perhaps the last straw. When a play 
called The Golden Bump, containing a still more violent 
attack on the Government, came into Walpole 's hands, the 
ministry made up its mind. 7 - A bill similar to Sir John 

7i See nos. 53 and 54. For other papers on. the question of manage- 
ment, see nos. 38', 42, 45, 117. 

72 This play was sent to Giffard, perhaps to entrap him; but he was 
wary and sent it to Walpole. As a reward, he was suffered to keep 
Goodman's Fields open under one pretext or another for a time. 
Hill noted in No. 23 of the Prompter that the stage would soon have 



140 AARON HILL 

Barnard's was prepared and hurried through Parliament 
(June 21, 1737) : no performance not sanctioned by a 
patent from the Crown or a license from the Lord Chamber- 
lain could be presented, and the play must be put into the 
Lord Chamberlain's hands a fortnight before representa- 
tion. The immediate results were the closing of the Hay- 
market and Goodman's Fields, and the prohibition of 
Thomson's Edward and Eleanora and Brooks's Gustavus 
Vasa. 

The monopoly of the legitimate drama, thus established, 
held its own almost unchallenged for fifty years. Then fol- 
lowed years of struggle against it, with many interesting 
phases, until the bill of 1737 was finally repealed in 1843. 
Though tragedy and comedy were confined to the patent 
theatres, small houses, running under licenses of one sort 
or another, produced burlettas, farces, and musical enter- 
tainments of all kinds; and continued to increase in the 
face of patent opposition and in spite of many vicissitudes. 
In 1787, "it clearly appeared that the predictions of Aaron 
Hill over half a century before had come to pass, namely, 
that a monopoly of the legitimate drama must ultimately 
lead to a lowering in tone of theatrical performances." 73 
From 1787 to 1810, many unsuccessful efforts were made 

to act political satire or nothing, and he quoted a bill, distributed by 
Punch and Harlequin at a masquerade: "On Thursday^ by the Nor- 
folk Company of artificial Comedians,, at Eobin's great Theatrical 
Booth in Palace-Yard, will be presented a comical and diverting Play 
of Seven Acts, called Court and Country; in which will be revived the 
entertaining Scene of Two Blundering Brothers, with the Cheats of 
Babbi Eobin, Prime Minister of King Solomon; the whole concluding 
with a great Masque, called, The Downfall of Sejanus, or, The 
Statesman's Overthrow, with Axes, Gibbets, and other Decorations 
proper to the Play." Whether this particular bill was ever printed 
or not, it is a good illustration of the lengths to which attacks on 
Walpole were carried. 

73 Nicholson, Struggle for a Free Stage, etc., 121. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 141 

to establish a third patent theatre, for the production of 
national drama. The older houses had been so enlarged 
that plays could not be heard by many of the spectators, 
and as a result, spectacle, show, and melodrama usurped 
their stages. Dramatists, who could seldom get their plays 
produced, joined forces, in the closing period of the 
struggle, with the minor theatres, and at last won the 
victory. "Had the wise counsel of the editor of the 
Prompter been followed in 1735, to restrict the minors to 
the legitimate drama, the false position which the patent 
houses had been forced to assume for the last fifty years 
of their existence would have been reversed, and, though 
the monopoly was sure to fall sooner or later, the patentees 
might have enjoyed the last years of their 'exclusive privi- 
leges' in some degree of comfort." 74 

For the academical theatre of which Hill dreamed in 
1733, he had ready his adaptation of Voltaire's ZaJire, 
which had been recently produced with great success in 
Paris. Hill was so "strongly delighted" 75 with the play 
that he lost no time in making a translation ; one scene was 
printed in the Gentleman's Magazine in May, 1733, and 
the public was told how Rich had refused the tragedy. 76 
Highmore accepted it in the fall, but delayed the produc- 
tion from month to month until his season was over. Hill 
had intended to give the profits to William Bond, an old 
friend of his, whose acquaintance was "too large for his 
fortune"; 77 but two years' solicitation of the managers had 
no result. At length, in June, 1735, Hill's nephew hired 
Sir Richard Steele's great Music-room in Villars Street, 
York Buildings, for an amateur performance, in which he 
took the role of Osman and Bond that of Lusignan. 78 

74 Struggle for a Free Stage, 418. 

75 Letter to Pope, November 7, 1733, Works, I, 177. 

76 Gent. Mag., April, 1733. 

77 Letter to Pope, November 7, 1733, WorTcs, I, 177. 

78 See Prompter, no. 60. 



142 AARON HILL 

"The reputation of the author," says Davies, "brought 
some of the best company in London to this diminutive 
theatre." 79 On the first night, Bond, old and feeble as 
the character he was supposed to represent, fainted in 
earnest in the scene where Lusignan blesses his children, 
and died a few hours afterwards. In spite of this tragedy, 
there were two more performances, so successful that the 
Drury-Lane management at last saw fit to bring Zara out 
in the following January. 80 

The result was, comparatively speaking, a triumph, for 
the play had an uninterrupted run of fourteen nights. 
Much of the success was due to the acting of one of Hill 's 
pupils in dramatic art — Susanna Maria Cibber, 81 who had 
never before appeared in tragedy. Hill had taken infinite 
pains to instruct her in every look and gesture, and to mark 
every accent and emphasis in her part. "Her great excel- 
lence," according to Davies, "consisted in that simplicity 
which needed no ornament; in that sensibility which de- 
spised all art ; there was in her person little or no elegance ; 
in her countenance a small share of beauty; but . . . the 
harmony of her voice was as powerful as the animation of 
her look. In grief and tenderness her eyes looked as if 
they swam in tears ; in rage and despair, they seemed to dart 
flashes of fire. In spite of the unimportance of her figure, 
she maintained a dignity in her action, and a grace in her 
step." 82 Unfortunately, Hill's delight in the deserved ap- 
plause of this pupil was "damped by the unhappy failure 
of his nephew in Osman; the young gentleman's figure and 
voice were by no means disagreeable ; but a certain stiffness 
in action and too labored and emphatical an emphasis in 

™ Life of Garrick, I, ch. 13. 
so January 12. 

si She was the daughter of the musician Arne, and the wife of 
Theophilus Cibber. 

82 Life of Garrick, II, 109. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 143 

speaking, disgusted the critics, who too severely corrected 
a young performer, whom, on the first night of his acting, 
they cruelly exploded." 83 Young Hill retired from the 
stage after that evening. 

Voltaire was "too generous to disclaim" his Zaire, 
"though naturalized in England." 84 Through his friend 
Thieriot, he signified to Hill his pleasure at the success of 
the English performance; and in the Dedicatory Epistle 
prefixed to the second edition (1736) of the tragedy, he 
referred in flattering terms to the translation and to the 
translator — "M. Hill, homme de lettres, qui parait con- 
naitre le theatre mieux qu'aucun auteur anglais." 85 He 
praised Hill especially for abandoning a long-established 
custom of English playwrights — that of concluding each 
act with a rhymed couplet or two, containing a comparison. 
This statement contained several slight inaccuracies, which 
Lessing took pleasure in pointing out later. 86 But the 

83 Davies, Life of Garrick, I, ch. 13. 

s* Hill to Voltaire, June 3, 1736, Works, I, 241. 

85 Voltaire makes one little criticism of Hill 's translation. Although 
Hill has, he says, generally reproduced the decorum of the French 
play in the expression of love, he has yielded to old custom in one or 
two places: — when Osman tells Zaire that he no longer loves her, she 
weeps, and Osman exclaims, ' ' Zaire, vous pleurez ! ' ' The translator, 
not content with this simplicity, makes Zara grovel at the sultan's 
feet, but does not change the Sultan's exclamation; the sultan ought 
to have said, remarks Voltaire, ' ' Zaire, vous vous roulez par terre ! ' ' 

86 Hamburgische Dramaturgic, XV, June 19, 1767. Lessing points 
out that rhymed couplets, by no means always containing a compari- 
son, are common in English plays from Shakespeare on, at the end of 
act or scene; but they are not invariably found before Hill's day, nor 
did they disappear as a result of his influence — a statement made by 
Voltaire; and in Zara itself, Hill ends several acts with couplets, 
though not with a comparison. As Lessing says, ' ' Es sind nicht mehr 
als nur drei Unwahrheiten in dieser Stelle ; und das ist fiir den Herren 
von Voltaire eben nicht viel. " In Appendix I of L. Morel's Thom- 
son the whole matter is discussed and an attempt made to support 
Voltaire. 



144 AARON HILL 

praise of Hill's translation as accurate is on the whole 
deserved. He follows the French text closely, merely 
warming a few speeches with his own poetic fire, and 
softening the character of Osman by many touches of 
gallantry. 87 

Voltaire did not think it necessary to mention what Hill 
was careful to point out in the Prompter (114), — that in 
this play Voltaire had ' ' been nobly warming himself at the 
fire of our English Othello." At this time the English 
were disposed to be rather pleased and nattered than other- 
wise by such evidence of French appreciation of Shake- 
speare. The play is based on the conflict between religion 
and love in the breast of Zara, a maiden of Christian 
parentage, who has been a captive from infancy in the 
hands of the Saracens. She is passionately in love with 
the generous young Sultan and he with her, and they are 
about to be married, when she discovers in the noble captive 
general, Lusignan, her own father, and in young Nerestan, 
just returned from France with a ransom for the Chris- 
tians, her brother. The joy of this recognition is followed 
by general dismay, when the father and brother find that 
Zara is herself a Mohammedan and about to become the 
bride of the Sultan ; they beg her to adopt the religion of 
her ancestors and give up her love. Meanwhile, the 
Sultan's jealousy is aroused by her troubled manner and 

« 7 Cf . ' ' Lorsque les Sarrasins, de carnage f umants, 

Kevinrent 1 'arracher a nies bras tout sanglants ' ' 
and Hill's 

"When from my bleeding arms fierce Saracens 
Forced the lost innocent, who smiling lay 
And pointed playful at the swarthy spoilers. ' ' 
Hill's sultan says gallantly: 

"For Zara — but to name her as a captive 
Were to dishonor language" 
a touch all Hill's own. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 145 

her interviews with Nerestan, whom he does not know to be 
her brother; he discovers a secret meeting between them, 
rashly stabs Zara, then learns the truth from Nerestan, and 
kills himself in despair, after bidding the survivors to make 
known his unhappy story. The resemblance to Othello — 
in the unfounded jealousy of the Sultan, his reliance upon 
a confidant (much less interesting than Iago), his murder 
of the woman he loves, his remorse, and suicide — is very 
obvious. In the death of old Lusignan, from joy at his 
release and at the discovery of his long-lost children, there 
is, as Professor Lounsbury has pointed out, a reminiscence 
of Lear. 8S This play is usually considered to be the best 
of Hill 's attempts ; it continued to be acted at intervals for 
many years, and was republished in a number of editions. 

Alzire was produced at Paris in January, 1736; and 
when Hill wrote to Voltaire in June, he had the pleasure 
of assuring him that the task of translating and producing 
it in England was nearly complete. His bookseller had 
sent him the French play about three weeks before ; he had 
lost no time in adapting it for representation; and the 
actors were already perfect in their parts. Haste, he ex- 
plained to Voltaire, had been necessary — ''to protect you 
from a winter storm of mercenary pens, that, tempted by 
your Zaire's success, were threatening to disjoint Alzira." 89 
It was acted on June 18, 1736, at Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields, and 
had a run of nine nights. The Prince of "Wales honored 
Alzira with such "warm and weighty" applause that Hill 
was encouraged to dedicate it to him. 

The prologue breathes an air of generous patronage of 
France : 

" Rich Britain borrows, but with generous end ; 
Whate'er she takes from France, she takes to mend." 

88 Shakespeare and Voltaire, 78-80. Voltaire's indebtedness is there 
analyzed in detail. 

89 Worls, I, 241. 
11 



146 AARON HILL 

And the Prompter, a few weeks before, had taken even 
Voltaire 's private character under its protection : " I have 
heard a thousand petty falsehoods in disadvantage of this 
gentleman's private character, not one of which I have 
been able to believe, since first I read his writings. And 
yet, admitting these things truths, they ought to weigh but 
light against those virtues which his works have taught the 
public." 90 This particular work Voltaire had written to 
show how the true spirit of religion overcomes the natural 
virtues — a laudable endeavor that quite deserved the 
Prompter's commendations The scene is laid in Peru. 
Don Alvarez, a model of all the Christian virtues, and a 
marvel in the eyes of the Indians who have learned to 
expect only cruelty from Christians, delegates his power to 
his son, Don Carlos, who loves Alzira, daughter of the 
conquered Indian king. Believing her Indian lover dead, 
and pressed by Alvarez and by her father, she marries 
Carlos. Then the lover, Zamor, returns with a band of 
followers, makes a desperate assault upon the city, and is 
defeated and captured. Of course, there are moving scenes 
of despair between Alzira and her lover. At length Zamor 
attacks Carlos (behind the scenes), wounds him mortally, 
and is condemned, together with Alzira, to death — unless 
he will turn Christian. He refuses with scorn. Then 
Carlos, who in the rather slow process of dying from his 
wound has grown as mild as his father, is brought in, for- 
gives his slayer, and expires ; and Zamor, astonished at the 
change wrought in his enemy by Christian principle, is 
promptly converted, and allowed to marry Alzira. 

"A moderate tragedy," is Genest's verdict. Voltaire 
did better when he snatched a brand from Othello. 91 Hill 
translates rather more freely than in the earlier play, and 

so No. 159, May 14, 1736. 

91 As Colley Cibber expressed it in the prologue he wrote for Zara. 



HILL AND THE STAGE 147 

breaks up some of the long speeches of declamation; and 
he improves upon Voltaire by making the altars tremble 
at the marriage of Carlos, and Heaven draw back. Carlos, 
too, is more gallant than Voltaire's Gusman. Once or 
twice, there is unexpected music in Hill 's blank verse : 

" And I have lived to see my father's throne 

O'erturned, and all things changed in earth and heaven." (Ill) 
" My taste of time is gone; and life to me 

Is but an evening's walk, in rain and darkness." (V) 

The kind regard, which, up to this time, Hill had felt 
for Voltaire and his work, now suffered a change. Hill, 
anticipating Mommsen, had what Davies calls "an un- 
common predilection" for the character of Caesar; 92 it 
amounted, in fact, to an obsession. He believed that Caesar 
was wronged in the popular estimation: no error was 
more general or less excusable than that he was a tyrant; 
he was the noblest patriot of antiquity, and died a martyr 
to the public liberty he was accused of violating. 93 When, 
therefore, Voltaire chose to write a tragedy on Caesar, 
exalting the character of Brutus, Hill promptly took fire. 
But Voltaire did much worse — he slandered not only 
Caesar, but the taste of the English nation. Having found 
it impossible to translate for the delicate French taste all 
of Shakespeare's "monstrueux ouvrage" on the subject, he 
had written La Mort de Cesar "dans le gout anglais," to 
make France acquainted with the English muse. It was a 
tragedy without love, without even any female characters ; 
and it exalted the love o>f liberty above all other passions. 
In these respects, it displayed "le genie et le caractere des 
ecrivains anglais, aussi bien que celui du peuple romain. ' ' 94 

92 Life of Garrick, I, ch. 13. 

93 See Hill's pamphlet, The Merit of Assassination (1738). This 
defense of Caesar — quite readable on the whole — sets forth Hill's 
interpretation of Caesar's career. 

s* Preface to La Mort de Cesar, 1736. 



148 AARON HILL 

Brutus, the stern patriot, learns that he is the son of Caesar, 
but he allows no small consideration like that to alter his 
determination to slay the tyrant of his country. Voltaire 
thus represented, as Hill said, "as an example of national 
virtue, an inhuman and bloody enthusiast, who, having 
plotted to assassinate his benefactor, under suspicion or 
appearance of tyranny, persists in and executes the murder, 
even after discovering that it is upon the person of his 
father ! ' ' 95 He must have a mistaken idea that our country 
likes butchery!' 

To refute these slanders upon England and Caesar, Hill 
wrote a play of his own in 1737, retaining the tale of 
Brutus 's parentage, but so contriving the plot that Brutus 
is led to disbelieve the story. The place which England 
would never refuse to women in tragedy is taken by 
Calphurnia and Portia, who interfere in state affairs in a 
most annoying manner. It is very curious that both Hill 
and Voltaire were devotedly attached to their plays on 
Caesar — an attachment shared by no one else. It was not 
until 1743 that La Mori, de Cesar had a hearing on the 
Parisian stage, and then it was coldly received ; and as for 
The Roman Revenge, Hill for ten years importuned friends, 
managers, and actors in vain in its behalf. The French 
play has one striking advantage over the English one — it 
is very much shorter; but I shall not compare them 
further, for no discussion could escape the infection of 
their dullness. 96 When they met Caesar, both the in- 

95 Letter to Bolingbroke, June 25, 1738, Works, I, 270. 

ss Hill 's reputation for dullness is perhaps due more than anything 
else to this play and to the interminable letters that he wrote about it. 
The following references will furnish material to anyone desirous to 
see how far into the domain of boredom a fixed idea can lead a man: 
letters to Pope, July 31, August 29, September 3, November 8, Decem- 
ber 9, 1738 (Works, I, 291, 295, 301, 308, 320), and January 15, 1739 
(I, 328) ; to Bolingbroke, June 25 and July 21, 1738 (I, 270, II, 417) ; 
to Fleetwood, 1739 (II, 13); to Mallet, December 9, 1738 (I, 323); 



HILL AND THE STAGE 149 

genious Mr. Hill and the brilliant M. Voltaire went down 
to defeat. 

Hill's resentment of Voltaire's imputations as to the 
English taste in tragedy was shared by many of his 
countrymen, who presently began to depreciate Voltaire, 
and to taunt him with his Shakespearean plagiarisms. 
Their irritation was greatly increased by some remarks 
which he prefixed to his Merope, published in 1744. After 
mentioning the introduction of a love episode into a play 
on the same subject produced in London in 1731, 97 he goes 
on: "depuis le regne de Charles II, l'amour s'etait empare 
du theatre d 'Angleterre ; et il f aut avouer qu 'il n 'y a point 
de nation au monde qui ait peint si mal cette passion. . . . 
II semble que la meme cause qui prive les Anglais du genie 
de la peinture et de la musique, leur ote aussi celui de la 
tragedie." 88 Here was matter enough for wrath, and it 
forced more people than Hill into an "abatement of the 
disposition" they once had felt "to look upon him as a 
generous thinker." 

Hill commenced reprisals by translating Merope, "upon 
a plan as near Voltaire's as I could wring it with a safe 
conscience." "I undertook this piece," he tells Mallet," 
' ' upon a motive more malignant than it should have been ; 
for I but sought to mend with the bad view to mortify 

to Popple, September 15, October 24, 1740 (II, 67, 71) ; to Eieh, 
November 4, 1742, and two undated letters (II, 3, 43, 49) ; to G-arrick, 
c. 1749 (II, 154) and June 30, 1746 (II, 244). He begs Garrick to 
act Caesar — it will show his weight ! ' ' Caesar had more than all the 
weight of Cato, ' ' — a most true observation. He also wrote to Eichard- 
son about it— Forster MSS., July 21, 1746. 

97 This was the Merope of George Jeffreys. See Miscellanies in 
verse and prose, by George Jeffreys, London, 1754. Hill wrote the 
prologue and epilogue. It is a pretty bad play. 

9 8 Dedication to " M. le Marquis Scipion Maffei, auteur de la Merope 
Italienne," upon which Voltaire founded his play. 

99 September 29, 1748. Works, II, 345. 



150 AARON HILL 

him." The play tells the story of Merope, widow of 
Cresphontes, king of Messene, murdered years before by the 
general Polyphontes. When the play opens, this general 
is trying to force the queen into a marriage with him, to 
secure his own power more effectively; but she hopes for 
the coming of the one son who had escaped the general 
massacre, and had been raised in safety and in ignorance 
of his birth by a faithful friend. This youth, upon his 
arrival in Messene, alone and unrecognized, is arrested for 
the murder of a man who had attacked him upon the road. 
Merope 's fear that the dead man may have been her son is 
apparently confirmed by several suspicious circumstances, 
and she is about to sacrifice her own son in the supposed 
murderer, when the guardian opportunely arrives and re- 
veals the truth. There is still danger from Polyphontes, 
but he is outwitted and slain at the sacrificial altar by the 
prince. 

Of the changes introduced by Hill, a few may be men- 
tioned: Voltaire's Polyphontes is the tyrant dictating 
terms — Hill's Polyphontes talks of love and addresses the 
Queen as his sister and his soul; Hill introduces some 
description of the Arcadian simplicity in which the prince 
was reared; Hill embellishes the account of the prince's 
prayer in the temple (II, 2) with trembling altars and 
glories beaming around; and he brings into the scene, 
where Merope attempts to sacrifice her son, a funeral song 
and a procession of virgins in white. There are other re- 
spects in which Hill differs from Voltaire, sometimes for 
the better, sometimes for the worse. 

His translation was finished in 1745 ; 100 but not until 

ioo Letter to Theo. Cibber, September 27, 1745, WorTcs, II, 307. 
Gibber was in jail for debt at the time, and Hill offered Merope for 
his relief. See A serio-comic Apology for part of the Life of Mr. 
Theophilus Cibber, etc., 97-98 (1748), where Cibber acknowledges 
Hill 's generosity. Hill 's Insolvent, based on Massinger 's Fatal Dowry 



HILL AND THE STAGE 151 

April 15, 1749, after many delays and many letters, did 
Garrick finally produce it at Drury-Lane. 101 It had nine 
performances. In the Advertisement to the edition printed 
in the same year, Hill quoted Voltaire's remarks about the 
incapacity of the English for tragedy, music, and painting, 
and then carried the war into France: "he must pardon 
me, if I am sensible that our unpolished London stage . . . 
has entertained a nobler taste of dignified simplicity than 
to deprive dramatic poetry of all that animates its passions, 
in pursuit of a cold, starved, tame abstinence ; which, from 
an affectation to shun figure, sinks to flatness ; an elaborate 
escape from energy into a grovelling, wearisome, bald, 
barren, unalarming, ehillness of expression, that emascu- 
lates the mind instead of moving it." This was a kind of 
"hostile style," as Hill admits, not only towards Voltaire, 
but towards French tragedy generally; and it illustrates 
the methods that were coming to be adopted by English 
writers, who defended Shakespeare by attacking Corneille 
and Racine. Hill concludes by announcing his intention 
shortly to publish a comparison between the French and 
English stages, which will convince Voltaire himself that 
we have better actors and finer writers. And with this 
flourish of trumpets, Hill's dramatic activity came to an 
end. 

From the extent and variety of all these theatrical in- 
terests that have been related, one might expect to find 

and written at Cibber's request, but not acted, is the subject of some 
correspondence between them about April, 1746 (Works, II, 312 f.). 

ioi See Forster MS., Hill to Eichardson, January 11, 1749, and 
Richardson to Hill, January 12; Hill to Garrick, January 20, March 
29, July 11, and August 28, 1749 (Works, II, 368, 370, 375, 387) ; to 
Mallet, January 12, 1749 (II, 352) ; to the actor who took the part of 
Polyphontes, April 7 and 8, 1749 (II, 147 f.). Hill received 148 1. 
from three nights' benefit of the play (Hill to Mallet, May 5, 1749, 
Works, II, 361). 



152 AARON HILL 

Hill's friends chiefly among actors, managers, and play- 
wrights. But Hill was more than projector, more than 
general theatrical expert ; he was also critic, essayist, letter- 
writer, and poet in many kinds, — epic, pindaric, amatory, 
satiric. Workers in any field of literary endeavor were 
likely to meet Mr. Hill there. Those literary connections 
not already treated will be taken up in the succeeding 
chapters, approximately in chronological order: first, the 
friendship with Thomson and a group of minor poets 
about 1725; then, that with Pope; and finally, that with 
Richardson. 



CHAPTER V 

HILL AND HIS CIECLE ABOUT 1725 

From about 1720 to 1728, Hill was a more prominent 
figure among contemporary writers than at any subse- 
quent time. The general situation in the literary world 
and the state of his private affairs were both favorable. 
The deaths of Addison, Prior, and Eowe, the absence of 
Swift from England, the preoccupation of Pope with his 
work of translation, made it comparatively easy for a minor 
author to assume a position of some consequence. Then, 
these were the lean years between generous patronage of 
men of letters by the State, and their support by the read- 
ing public. The first two Georges were notoriously in- 
different to literature ; and "Walpole, who came to power in 
1721, was so much the "poet's foe," in Swift's phrase, 1 
that by 1732 or 1733 most of these poets were in the ranks 
of the Opposition with Bolingbroke, employing every 
weapon of dramatic and personal satire against Walpole. 
Only more or less disreputable hack writers, like Henley 
("Orator Henley"), Arnall, and Joseph Mitchell, were 
engaged to support the ministry. In neglect of poets, the 
nobility, with few exceptions, followed the example of the 
court. Thomson, in a letter to Mallet of September 20, 
1729, points out the difficulty of securing subscriptions, 
inveighs bitterly against ' ' some of our modern Goths ' ' who 
have agreed among themselves to encourage no subscrip- 
tions whatever, under a penalty, and ends by damning 
"their corruption, their low taste, and all their stupid 

i Epistle to Mr. Gay, 1731. 

153 



154 AARON HILL 

expense." 2 It was a "fashionable expedient," according 
to Hill, to return the "dedicator's Gilt Book, with this 
short apology for not accepting it, — my Lord gives his 
service, and says he does not understand these matters"; 
probably they think themselves "under no obligation to 
pay for compliments which their conscience tells them they 
have no right to. ' ' 3 

For any writer, himself independent of patronage, there 
was thus ample opportunity of generous service to less 
fortunate brothers. Hill was relatively independent, and 
he was for the moment unoccupied. His projecting fever 
was temporarily checked by the general discredit that over- 
took "bubbles" after the South Sea disaster; his latest 
scheme to run a theatrical company had ended in disap- 
pointment; the failure of Henry V had made him very 
pessimistic in regard to the stage; he had not yet caught 
sight of those Golden Groves that called him from London 
in 1726 ; and he was probably easier financially than he 
ever was after the York Buildings Company fiasco. In 
brief, he had a short interval of comparative leisure for the 
exercise of his pen and his benevolence. 

The position of influence, thus made possible by the 
state of literature and of his own affairs, became an ac- 
complished fact with the success of the Plain Dealer. This 
periodical, and Savage's Miscellany, which might more ap- 
propriately have appeared under Hill's name, will serve as 
convenient foci for the discussion of Hill's literary rela- 
tionships. An examination of the first will show how it 
served the interests of struggling writers, and gave Hill a 
certain status as a wit and a man of influence ; and a discus- 
sion of the second will bring out further developments of 
the friendships indicated in the Plain Dealer, and will dis- 

~ Philobiblon Society Miscellanies, vol. IV. 
3 Plain Dealer, no. 73. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 155 

play Hill as the leading spirit in the little circle of poets 
and versifiers who figure in its pages. One poet, James 
Thomson, who appears in the Plain Dealer, but not in the 
Miscellany, was as closely identified with the group about 
Hill as Mallet or Savage ; but as the story of his friendship 
with Hill is told chiefly in their correspondence, it will be 
best to consider it separately. Thomson 's genius has, after 
all, lifted him out of this group of his contemporaries, and 
given him the right to separate mention. 

Hill's brief connection with the British Apollo in 1708 
had not been followed up by active interest in any of the 
periodicals and newspapers that multiplied with bewilder- 
ing rapidity after the success of the Tatler. The mortality 
among them was great: some, like Addison's Whig Ex- 
aminer, did not survive beyond a few numbers, but new 
ones sprang up immediately in their places. Aside from 
the papers that confined themselves to news items and 
advertisements of books and drugs, 4 most of these journals 
were frankly political. This is not surprising, in view of 
the stirring events of the years from 1710 to 1725, — the 
ministry of Harley and Bolingbroke, the treaty with 
France, the accession of the Hanover line, the impeachment 
of the fallen ministers, the Jacobite rebellion, the dissen- 
sions among the Whig leaders, the South Sea panic, and 
the Atterbury conspiracy. Before 1715, the Examiner, 
the Review, the Mercator, the Guardian, the Englishman, 
engaged the talents of Swift, Defoe, Addison, Steele, and 
other writers of importance. From that time until, in 
1727, Bolingbroke became identified with the Craftsman, 
the political papers are dreary reading, — dulness, scandal, 
invective, indecency, and bigotry, unrelieved by talent. 
Occasionally, periodicals appeared with other than political 
aims : Theobald 's Censor, for instance, with some essays of 

* The Post-Boy is an example. 



156 AAEON HILL 

interest and merit; the Doctor, offering instruction in 
manners and morals; the Instructor, which abandoned the 
attempt to reform mankind after six numbers; the Free- 
Thinker, edited by Ambrose Phillips and others. Of these 
only the last can bear comparison with Hill's paper, and it 
had ceased before the appearance of the first number of the 
Plain Dealer. In 1724-5, Hill had to himself the field of 
the periodical of miscellaneous essays after the Spectator 
pattern, and he produced one of the very few readable col- 
lections between the Spectator and the Rambler. 

Characteristically, he undertook the Plain Dealer, with 
William Bond, as a charitable enterprise — "for the ad- 
vantage of an unhappy gentleman (an old officer in the 
army)." 5 It came out twice a week, from March 23, 1724, 
to May 7, 1725, and was designed not only to entertain, but 
to advance learning, virtue, and politeness. Bond, in 
dedicating the second edition (1734) to Lord Hervey, his 
relative, refers mysteriously to the genius concerned with 
him in the undertaking, whose name he is not at liberty to 
reveal; and he devotes most of the dedication to extrava- 
gant praise of the unknown and to nauseous flattery of 
Hervey. As an essayist, the genius bears comparison with 
Addison: "He is everywhere remarkable for the same 
propriety, both as to words and thoughts; he is as refined, 
polite, easy, and genteel a writer, as graceful and familiar, 
as sublime and as facetious, as sharp and as sprightly, as 
smooth and as strong, as pathetic and concise at times, and 
yet, at times, as copious too and as fluent, as learned and 
sententious, in fine as full of all kinds of seasonings and 
ornaments" as the subjects require. He thus combines in 
himself all the desirable (and contradictory) qualities of 
all the essayists who ever wrote. 

A eulogy less comprehensive would be more useful as a 

5 Cibber's Lives, V, 264. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 157 

guide to the authorship of the separate papers. According 
to the traditional witticism ascribed to Savage, Hill and 
Bond wrote by turns six numbers, and the quality of the 
production was observed so regularly to rise during Hill's 
weeks and fall during Bond's that Savage nicknamed them 
"the contending powers of light and darkness." 6 Un- 
fortunately, this easy solution of the question of authorship 
does not stand examination. Perhaps the first twenty-four 
numbers were enough to inspire Savage's remark: in the 
first group of six nothing suggests Hill ; in the second, three 
are in his style ; in the third, none ; in the fourth, at least 
two are unquestionably his. But from there on, difficulties 
increase: Nos. 25-30 should be Bond's, but three are cer- 
tainly Hill's; and so it goes through the rest of the one 
hundred and seventeen papers. Fairly reliable evidence 
of authorship lies in autobiographical references; in an 
exclamatory style full of "bold experiments in language"; 7 
in sentiments typical of Hill on projects, or the stage, or 
Caesar ; in quotations from his poems ; and in praise of the 
work of his friends. By these tests, fully one-half fall to 
his share. Other collaborators have been suggested, — 
Savage, in the catalogue of the Hope Collection at the 
Bodleian, and Young, by his biographer, M. Thomas. 
Those papers that are undoubtedly Hill's, however, are of 
so pronounced a quality, compared with many that may or 
may not be his, that they clearly give to the Plain Dealer 
such individuality as it has. 

A survey of the contents reveals obvious imitations of 
the Spectator: for instance, the description of the group of 
people (Patty Amble, Ned Volatile, Sir Portly Rufus, 
Major Stedfast, and so on,) who figure in the first and some 
subsequent papers ; the account of the death of Sir Portly ; 

e Johnson 's Lives, ed. Gr. B. Hill, II, 341, n. 7. 
7 Ibid., II, 340. 



158 AAEON HILL 

a revery in Westminster Abbey; reflections upon witch- 
craft and petty superstitions. 8 Somewhat in the Spectator 
style are the discussions on manners and morals, — mas- 
querades, gambling, short wigs, excessive drinking, stock- 
jobbing, riding-habits, moustaches, and like matters. 9 There 
are dissertations, usually illustrated by a story either too 
obvious to be interesting or too irrelevant to be enlight- 
ening, 10 on good-breeding and politeness, true and false 
wit, true and false decency, patriotism, duelling, friend- 
ship, and party spirit. 11 Sometimes correspondents (prob- 
ably invented for the occasion) dream dreams and feel 
unaccountably obliged to tell Mr. Plain Dealer about them ; 
or ask his advice in their silly love difficulties. 12 There 
are invectives against narrow and petty notions of trade 
— there speaks the projector; against unmerited respect 
paid to mere rank; and against ' ' double-entendre, ? ' — 
a remonstrance that would be more effective if the Plain 
Dealer did not himself now and then indulge in a form of 
wit unpleasantly characteristic of the age. 13 Most of the 
papers are neither better nor worse than second-rate imita- 
tions of the Spectator manner; but a few are for some 
reason or other interesting enough to deserve particular 
mention. 

No. 12, expressing vigorous disapproval of capital 
punishment for insignificant crimes, is typical of Hill's 
humanity. A man, he notes, is infinitely more valuable 
than his beast or his furniture ; he cannot bear to see the 
execution of poor wretches who perhaps stole to avoid 
starvation. That human life is worth more than property 

8 Nos. 8, 13, 19, 117; no. 79; no. 42; no. 93. 

9 Nos. 2, 4, 33, 3&, 41, 112, 113. 

10 For example, nos. 9 and 35. 
ii Nos. 5, 6, 8, 11, 31, 44. 

12 Nos. 26, 43, 47, 58, 78, 81. 

13 Nos. 30, 85; 38; 7; 64, 76. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 159 

is not yet fully recognized either in or out of the law- 
courts; but the atrocious penal code, against which he de- 
claims in the following paragraph, has disappeared : 

" I am convinced that if it were possible to see on some such 
plain as that of Salisbury, under one assembled prospect, the 
whole number of men and women who have been executed for 
theft only, in all the counties of this kingdom, within the memory 
of any person of but a moderate advance in years, — such a 
dreadful demonstration of the waste which is made by this sweep 
of the sword of justice would be a startling inducement to those, 
whose province it is known to be, to weigh with pity and delib- 
eration, whether punishments more adequate and more politic, 
too, than death, might not easily be appropriated to a number 
of petty crimes, which ever were and ever must be unavoidably 
frequent in all peopled places; being the necessary consequences 
either of the wants or the depravity of the lowest part of the 
human species." 14 

No. 30 gives a lively picture of the opposition to inocula- 
tion. This prejudice against a manifestly beneficial thing 
is to Hill merely another instance of a trait of his country- 
men which he had sad occasion to note only too often, — 
their fixed aversion to novelty. The arguments against the 
practice are as amusing as those of the Boyars of Russia, 
who opposed the Czar's design of a canal betwen the Volga 
and the Tanais on the ground of its impiety — God had not 
made the rivers to run together. Hill is prodigal of facts 
as well as exclamations about the effects of inoculation, and 
he compliments Lady Mary Wortly Montagu by quoting, 
with a very fair amount of commendation, his own poem 
to her. 15 

14 No. 80 is on a similar subject— a remonstrance against exploiting 
crime by writing up the lives of criminals. 

15 In "George Paston's" Lady Montagu and her Times, 305, this 
paper is claimed, but without any proof, for Mary Astell; and Hill's 
poem is assumed to be hers, though it is included in his WorTcs. A 
mere impression scarcely justifies the ascription. 



160 AARON HILL 

No. 69 is a paper on Woman's Rights, conceived as a 
theme for infinite jest. Even Patty Amble herself was 
probably amused at her own oratory: "How are we repre- 
sented, when none of our sex are permitted to sit and vote 
for us? Is this free government? Is this to be subject 
to no laws but those we have first given consent to? Either 
let us as a distinct body have a right to govern ourselves ; 
or admit an equal number of us to sit where laws are made 
for us. And I believe I may venture to undertake . . . that 
we will be modest enough in that case, to content ourselves 
with a bare negative upon all bills that concern us." It is 
interesting to see a joke become in a couple of centuries a 
great political problem; no bare negative will satisfy the 
Patty Ambles of today. 16 

Several papers upon love must be noticed because of this 
interesting statement in Bond's dedication: the author 
whose name he conceals differs from almost all of the 
greatest wits in his treatment of love; "he writes of love 
with as much decency as a good divine performs the most 
solemn ceremony belonging to it, and yet expresses as 
warmly and as naturally all the true delicacies and re- 
jouissances of it" as any lover could wish; "every thought 
and every expression is masterly, moving, but yet in such 
a way as is most mannerly and modest ; a vestal may read 
it without a blush," and yet will chastely desire to change 
her state and feel an "honest commotion." To examine 
the essays in question, with this frightful commendation in 
mind, reveals nothing very startling except a comparative 
absence of indecency in the discussion of the love affairs of 
correspondents. Several papers are little more than ex- 
tracts from Hill's poem, The Picture of Love, — a harm- 
less bit of verse, written of course in an exaggerated vein 

16 Fielding wrote several papers in the Champion (January and 
May, 1740), in much the same spirit as this of Hill's. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 161 

and expressing what Hill conceived to be rapture. No. 45 
adds to the poetical rhapsody one in prose : a lover is like a 
god! "He has the prophet's sacred privilege to be rapped 
[sic] out of himself. . . . Lovers converse like angels, by a 
kind of intuition! They hear one another's souls and pre- 
vent each other's wishes. Like divinities quitting their 
shrines, they disrobe themselves of their bodies, and inter- 
mingle their meeting minds, as we see two lights incorporate. 
Their souls glide out from their eyes, to snatch embraces at 
a distance, ' ' and so on. This is absurd enough to cause an 
honest commotion. But thoughts like the following, while 
not remarkable, are yet rare in a period when cynical jests 
about love were far more usual than raptures : " I am fond 
of thinking we might draw from love a proof of the soul's 
immortality. . . . Why else are the joys of love mixed with 
melancholy and unsatisfied tremblings? These increase, 
indeed, and refine the pleasure. But they convince us that 
there is a union more adapted to our mind's free essence, 
and which our bodies are not fine enough to permit them 
the enjoyment of." 

This somewhat lengthy survey of the Plain Dealer is justi- 
fied, if it has suggested a reason for the paper 's success. That 
it did win a fair degree of notice and favor is indicated by 
its republication in 1730 and again in 1734. The editor of 
a successful periodical could grant or withhold favors, and 
it was characteristic of Hill to delight in granting them. 
He encouraged the work of his friends, and he made new 
friends by his hospitality to hitherto unknown genius. 

Among the friends praised in the Plain Dealer was Ed- 
ward Young. That Hill had been interested in Young's 
work as far back as 1719 is proved by his MS. notes in the 
Bodleian copy of the Paraphrase of a Part of the Book of 
Job. These observations are not numerous : often merely a 
star of commendation after such lines as "strikes the dis- 
12 



162 AARON HILL 

tant hills with transient light, ' ' or comments like ' ' absurd, ' ' 
' ' frightful anticlimax, " " nonsense, ' ' after such a couplet as 

" The spotted plagues that marked his limbs all o'er 
So thick with pains, they wanted room for more." 

The criticisms, comparatively trifling as they are, indicate 
to M. Thomas that Hill had grasped "le veritable interet 
de cette nouvelle composition de notre auteur, a savoir le 
progres sensible de la forme et parfois meme la perfection 
du style." 17 Any testimony by a modern scholar to Hill's 
acuteness in literary criticism is worth noting. If unac- 
quainted at this time, the two writers may have met in 1719 
or 1721, when Young's plays, Busiris and The Revenge, 
were acted by Hill's friends at Drury-Lane. 

Of Young's movements from 1723 to 1727 few details are 
known, except that he was in London ; M. Thomas suggests 
that he wrote for reviews — perhaps even for the Plain 
Dealer: "C'est la que nous croyons retrouver la trace des 
meditations, assez sombres desormais, de"notre auteur. En 
effet, il y parait nombre d 'articles sur des sujets qui lui 
tenaient a cceur." 18 He instances as probably Young's 
work no. 32, made up of reflections on death. As the 
meditations are such as might be inspired in any sensitive 
mind by the transitoriness of life, and are expressed in 
terms not beyond any writer with a gift for the obvious, 
and as they are illustrated by one of Hill's poems, 19 it 
seems a little unnecessary to ascribe them to Young. To 
ask "what has become of all those busy bustlers who have 
lived and died before us?" or to picture the body as a 
prison for the soul, released finally by death, might occur 
to Hill as well as to Young. And Hill might even express 
such ideas rather well, for his style occasionally has literary 

it W. Thomas, Le Poete Edward Young, 327. 

is Ibid., 83. 

i9 To Clelia, Works, IV, 55. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 163 

flavor. This passage — one of the best in the essay — is not 
beyond him : ' ' When we die, those we leave are a number 
very small and inconsiderable in comparison with those we 
go to. The Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, the 
heroic conquerors, the shining poets of antiquity, and the 
whole assembled congress of long known and glorious char- 
acters, who have flourished from the world's creation, are 
to be the company to whose familiar converse Death will 
introduce us. ' ' 20 

Three other papers that suggest Young to his biographer 
are still less likely to be his. 21 On the whole, the evidence 
of Young's collaboration on the Plain Dealer is of the 
slenderest sort. On the other hand, whether or not Hill 
was returning a favor, as M. Thomas suggests, he devotes 

20 M. Thomas gives as a parallel passage Alonzo 's soliloquy at the 
beginning of the last scene of Act IV of his 'Revenge: "It is death 
joins us to the great majority," etc. The parallelisms in phrase are 
not striking. 

2i No. 87 : a letter discussing the place of passion in poetry, and 
the value of the Bible as a source of inspiration, furnishes a text for 
the editor's comments, illustrated by long quotations from Dennis; 
Hill was in the habit of quoting Dennis in matters of criticism; the 
paper concludes with Hill's metrical version of Habalckuk; only the 
letter, then, could be the work of Young. No. Ill (misprinted 116 in 
M. Thomas's book) : most of this exhortation to consider the sun and 
the stars and the wonder of them, and reflect whether or not they prove 
the contrivance of an infinite architect, is quoted from the ' ' author of 
the excellent discourse The Religion of Nature Delineated," — Dr. 
Wollaston, who died in 1724 (8th ed., 1759, 142 f.) ; and certain 
' ' beaux vers sur le systeme de Newton ' ' are stanzas II and XVIII of 
Hill's Judgment Bay. No. 67: this contains a eulogy of the Duke of 
Chandos, "avee lequel Young aura des relations plus tard"; it is a 
paper in Hill's most projecting spirit, showing the Royal African 
Company how much more they would gain by using their negroes to 
cultivate the land in Africa, instead of transporting them ; there is no 
impossibility in this design, except to "narrow and confined under- 
standings and spirits of a heavy fabric"; as the Duke of Chandos 
was connected with the company, the eulogy was pertinent. 



164 AARON HILL 

two numbers to Young's First and Second Satires, quoting 
from them, and praising one as the work of some consider- 
able genius, and the other as full of the liveliest energy. 22 
Young must have appreciated such friendly advertising. 23 

Dennis, also, who figures prominently in the Plain 
Dealer, must have been an acquaintance of long standing, 
though in no intimate sense. Hill often showed, both by 
word and by deed, his high estimate of Dennis's criticism. 
It was to Dennis and Gildon that in 1716 he dedicated his 
Fatal Vision; precisely because they were severe and watch- 
ful critics, they best deserved the labor of the Muses. 
Dedications to men of letters were almost unknown at the 
time ; this of Hill 's was not epoch-making, as was Pope 's to 
Congreve a little later, simply because the Fatal Vision was 
not epoch-making. But it was an interesting departure 
from prevailing custom. 

To the influence of Dennis's ideas may perhaps be 
ascribed Hill's fondness for Scriptural paraphrase; it has 
been pointed out that he versified nearly all of Dennis's 
favorite passages in the Old Testament. 24 Dennis was 
known for his insistence on emotion as the basis of poetry, 

22 Nos. 92 and 110. From the First Satire, 11. 129-142, 255-264 are 
quoted; from the Second, 11. 213 f. 

23 Pleasant relations with Hill continued for a time at least, for it 
was at Young's house that Pope and Hill first met, perhaps about 
1730-31 (Pope to Hill, October 29, 1731. Col. of 1751) ; but they prob- 
ably ceased after Young's settlement at Welwyn. Hill referred to the 
Night Thoughts in a rather discriminating criticism (Hill to Eichard- 
son, July 24, 1744. Corres., I, 102) : "As to Dr. Young, I know and 
love the merit of his moral meanings; but am sorry that he over- 
flows his banks, and will not remind himself (when he has said enough 
upon his subject), that it is then high time to stop. He has beauties 
scattered up and down in his Complaints that, had he not so separated 
them by lengths of cooling interval, had been capable of carrying 
into future ages such a fire as few past ones ever equalled. What a 
pity want should be derived from superfluity ! ' ' 

24 H. G. Paul, John Dennis, 204, n. 24. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 165 

and on the Bible rather than the classics as a source of in- 
spiration; he stood "as an advocate of the exaltation and 
inspiration of the poet, that so ill accorded with the pre- 
vailing spirit of the times that he was derisively dubbed 
Sir Longinus." 25 Hill undoubtedly agreed with these 
views, for he preached rapture and enthusiasm in his 
critical remarks as diligently as he tried to display them in 
his poetry.- 6 One illustration of his paraphrases, for which 
he employed chiefly Pindaric verse, will be sufficient. 
Plain Dealer no. 74 makes some disparaging comments on 
the paraphrases sung in churches, and commends the poet, 
whose version of the 104th psalm is about to be quoted, for 
keeping his eye on the ' ' sense and dignity of the original. ' ' 
"Nothing can be more unlike the thoughts of David than 
what we sing as his in most of our churches." Surely 
nothing can be more unlike the thoughts of David than 
this: 

" Lightnings in millions sweep his fiery way, 
And round his paths in blue meanders play ; " 
or this: 

" But the proud mountains which ambitious grow, 
And viewing heaven disdain the world below, 
Nor will to humble brooks refreshment owe, 
Sip the moist clouds and cool their heads in snow." 27 

25 Paul's Dennis, 134. 

26 The list of his poems inspired by the Scriptures includes the 
Creation, the Judgment Day, paraphrases of the 104th, 107th, 114th, 
and part of the 55th psalms, a portion of Habakkuk, chapters 5, 6, 
and 7 of Matthew, part of II Kings, part of ch. 16 in Exodus, and the 
Lord's Prayer. The first two were published separately in 1720 and 
1721; several of the others first appeared in the Plain Dealer, and 
Savage's Miscellany; they were all reprinted in Hill's Works, vols. 
Ill and IV. 

27 Thomson's version of the same psalm is at least as bad as Hill's, 
though less rapturous: 

' ' That man may be sustained beneath the toil 
Of manuring the ill-producing soil." (Aldine ed., II, 142). 



166 AAEON HILL 

Hill also undertook, perhaps about 1716, an epic on Gideon 
— in twelve books of irregular Pindaric verse. It was com- 
plete in MS. in 1724, 28 but only three books, apparently, 
were ever published, and these not until 1749. It was pro- 
vided with all the proper epic material, — descriptions, 
similes, episodes, 29 single combats, battles, visions, debates, 
and miracles; and adorned by Hill's "inimitable style," — 
a style characterized by an astonishing collection of ad- 
jectives in -y, -ive, -ful: speary, beamy, curvy, sheltry, 
grovy, druggy, embry, nashful, scopeful, feastful, retortive, 
revertive. 30 Still, even in Hill's version, the interest of the 
narrative is not quite lost. One wonders whether Dennis 
was among the few enemies or the many admirers of 
Gideon. 31 

Several Plain Dealers merely honor Dennis by quotation 
from his works, 32 but two numbers mingle their praise with 
practical appeals in his behalf. In connection with the 
proposals for Dennis's Miscellaneous Tracts, 33 Hill observes 
(no. 54) that the length of the subscription list to Pope's 
Homer is no proof of the age 's partiality to poets, for Pope 
has so many friends that to be out of the list is to be out of 

28 In a letter to "Clio" of April 9, 1724 (Works, I, 24), he prom- 
ises to have the twelve books "writ fair." 

29 Sareph and Eamar, Works, IV, 243 ; Oreo and Joash, Prompter 
No. 59 ; Burning of the Bridge, from book VIII, Prompter No. 76. 

so Thomson, of course, employs many such adjectives, but less gener- 
ously than Hill; and Savage is guilty of heapy, chippy, foodful, and 
so on in his Excursion. Dyer bears away the palm, when he speaks 
of the "abstersive" gums of sheep (in his Fleece, I), and of rubbing 
their mouths with ' ' detersive bay salt. ' ' 

si Cibber's Lives, V, 261: "Gideon had its enemies, but many more 
admirers. ' ' 

32 No. 57 (from the Observations on Paradise Lost) ; No. 87 (from 
his "noble dress" of the 18th psalm) ; Nos. 60 and 96 (from private 
letters) . 

ss The Proposals first appeared in 1721 ; the Tracts were published 
in 1727. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 167 

fashion. "But let me see these shining names to Mr. 
Dennis's Miscellaneous Tracts, which he is now publishing 
by a subscription scarce the sixth part so chargeable, and 
I will afterwards suppose that they can read as well as 
purchase." 34 A few months later, Dennis's circumstances 
were such that Rich offered him a benefit at Lincoln 's-Inn- 
Fields, and the Plain Dealer (no. 82) comes out strongly in 
support of the plan. Prejudice and stupidity alone, Hill 
declares, are responsible for the general insensibility to 
Dennis's merits. Young writers, in terror of his austerity, 
think him ill-natured when he is only impartial ; an enemy 
to wit and learning when he is an enemy only to the pro- 
faners of them. They should recognize that where there 
is art, there must be criticism. He makes a final plea to 
the brave and beautiful to appear in the cause of wisdom 
at the benefit performance. 35 

Hill's interest in Dennis seems to have been due to 
sincere admiration of his qualifications as a critic, and to 
sincere sympathy for him in his distress ; and not to strong 
personal feeling, or to gratitude for any reciprocal atten- 
tions. After Dennis's death, a short poem (unsigned, but 
later included in Hill's Works)™ appeared in the Gentle- 
man's Magazine ; 37 and was afterwards chosen by the 
author of the Life of Mr. John Dennis to adorn his hearse 
in a "fragrant manner." This elegy, "wiredrawn in less 

34 In this paper Hill goes on to speak of the value of criticism, using 
Dennis's comments on Blackmore as an illustration, and praising his 
Te Deum at the expense of Blackmore 's hymn, Hail, King Supreme. 
Had Blackmore buoyed himself up by criticism, "he could never have 
sunk so soon and so shamefully as to tell us in the fourth verse that 
he who is supreme in power is controlled by no superior. ' ' This, and 
several other examples of the art of sinking, read like an anticipation 
of the Treatise on the Bathos. 

35 The Old Bachelor, given for Dennis's benefit, January 4, 1725. 

36 1754 ed., Ill, 421. 
3" January, 1732. 



168 AARON HILL 

than a fortnight's time," according to this author, "from 
the brain of the very pink of courtesy and poesy," apos- 
trophizes Dennis as "unsocial excellence," and goes on: 

" Want, the grim recompense of truth like thine, 
Shall now no longer dim thy destined shine. 
Th'hnpatient envy, the disdainful air, 
The front malignant, and the captious stare, 
The furious petulance, the jealous start, 
The mist of frailties that obscured thy heart, 
Veiled in thy grave, shall unremembered lie, 
For these were parts of Dennis born to die ! " 

But his nobler qualities will ' ' engage the slow gratitude of 
time." 38 

These lines prove that Hill by no means overlooked the 
faults of Dennis's character; though he did not suffer 
personally from his attacks, he recognized that they were 
often unjustified, as in the case of Steele. 39 And when 
Pope, in the course of one of the defenses of his own 
perfectly disinterested character which he was in the habit 
of making to Hill, complains of the unkind construction 
Mr. Dennis is putting upon his efforts to work up a sub- 
scription for him, Hill's reply is at once a fair estimate of 
Dennis, and a delicate rebuke of Pope: "Where a man's 
passions are too strong for his virtues, his suspicion will be 
too hard for his prudence. He has often been weak enough 
to treat you in a manner that moves too much indignation 
against himself not to leave it unnecessary for you also to 
punish him. Neither of us would choose him for a friend ; 
but none of the frailties of his temper, any more than the 
heavy formalities of his style, can prevent your acknowl- 

38 The ' ' pink of courtesy ' ' appreciated neither the compliment nor 
the biography, which he called (Prompter no. 48) a "silly and mali- 
cious pamphlet. ' ' 

39 Hill to Victor, February 21, 1723 (Victor's Hist, of the Theatres, 
II, 172). 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 169 

edging there is often weight in his arguments, and matter 
that deserves encouragement to be met with in his 
writings. ' ' 40 

Neither Young nor Dennis, though both were praised in 
the Plain Dealer, and both were friends of its author, were 
in the more intimate circle. They were older than Hill — 
Dennis considerably so — and already well-known. It was 
in assisting the younger, still obscure writers, that Hill had 
the best chance to display his judgment and good-nature. 
The most creditable of his deeds was his encouragement of 
Thomson's first efforts to gain a hearing in London; but 
before that, he had played fairy godmother to two of 
Thomson's fellow-countrymen. 

It was from Scotchmen that poetry received, just at this 
time, a fresh impulse. The publication of the Seasons 
signified a virtual rediscovery of nature; as a theme for 
poetry, its possibilities had been almost entirely overlooked 
for thirty or forty years. Then, interest in the literature 
of the past — another neglected source of inspiration — was 
fostered by a Scotchman, Allan Ramsay, whose selections 
from early Scotch verse showed his own appreciation and 
stimulated others. 41 In view of these facts, it would be 
pleasant to find in Hill's prompt welcome of Mallet and 
Thomson a proof of unusual critical discernment ; and much 
might be cited in support of this notion. Unfortunately, 
his welcome of Joseph Mitchell, which was just as enthusi- 
astic, prompts the reflection that it was the needy poet, 
rather than the new impulse, that he saw coming from 
Scotland. Hill did realize, however, that interest in litera- 
ture had awakened in Edinburgh, and he called the at- 
tention of his readers to a club among the students of the 

40 Pope to Hill, February 5, and Hill to Pope, February 10, 1731, 
Col of 1751. 

4i Eamsay published Christ's Kirk on the Green in 1716; bis Ever- 
green (1724) gave examples of Scotch poems before 1600. 



170 AARON HILL 

University, — the Grotesque Club, founded to encourage, in 
the words of one of its own members, "friendship that 
knows no strife, but that of a generous emulation to excel 
in virtue, learning, and politeness." This is only one of 
the indications that the Muses and Graces have visibly 
fixed themselves in the learned seminaries of the North. 42 
Among the members of the club were Mallet, Thomson — 
"that dull fellow whom Malcolm calls the jest of our 
club" 43 — and perhaps the Joseph Mitchell for whom Hill 
wrote his Fatal Extravagance. 

About the life of Mitchell, the first of the Scotch group 
to come to London, little definite is known, and that not 
much to his credit. His friends are said not to have been 
solicitous to preserve the circumstances of his career; he 
was "a slave to his pleasures," and extravagant to an 
extent that forced him to be "perpetually skulking" to 
elude his numerous creditors. 44 At least as early as Oc- 
tober, 1720, he was in London. 45 In 1721, his Ode on the 
Power of Music was advertised in the second edition of 
Hill's "Judgment Day, and he himself singled out in the 
preface as the "young gentleman of Edinburgh" at whose 
request the poem was written. This reference puts the 
beginning of his acquaintance with Hill back some months 
at least before March, 1721, the date of the preface. Hill 
is certain that his "late admirable attempts in poetry make 
it needless to tell the world what they are to hope from 
his great genius." 

Mitchell himself, fearful lest the world may not share 
Hill 's opinion, consoles himself, in the Advertisement to his 
Ode, with the reflection: "In company with the incompa- 

42 Plain Dealer, no. 46. 

43 Mallet to Ker, July 31, 1727. 

44 Cibber's Lives, IV, 347 f. 

45 Mallet to Ker, October 5, 1720,— "Mitchell, author of Luguores 
Cantus, now in London." European Mag., XXIII. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 171 

rable Mr. Hill (whose unrivalled Muse he [the author] fol- 
lows at a distance, and to whom he professes himself singu- 
larly obliged) he is prepared to suffer the worst treatment 
this age can give, with a pleasure that he could not enjoy 
in the bubble of popular applause." Not a very tactful 
remark; for however stoically Mr. Hill might endure the 
worst treatment from the public, he by no means expected 
to receive it. In the poem itself is a tribute to Hill by the 
name he bore among his admirers : 

" Music religious thoughts inspires, 
And kindles bright poetic fires; 

Fires! such as great Hillarius raise (Aaron Hill, Esq.) 
Triumphant in their blaze! 

Amid the vulgar versifying throng 
His genius with distinction show, 

And o'er our popular metre lift his song, 
High as the Heavens are arched o'er Orbs below." 

Hillarius raised by fire to so exalted a station, and ill- 
treated by his age, is surely placed by his Scotch friend 
in a most uncomfortable position. Mitchell cannot speak 
of him except in flaming terms : 46 he is " sublimely fired ' ' ; 
he sets burning worlds before our eyes; his interior worth 
blazes in his breast; and his heat first melted Mitchell's 
"cogenial frost." 47 What frost could withstand it? No 
eulogy of the man who had relieved his distress, by letting 
him claim the authorship as well as the proceeds of a suc- 
cessful play, could be too fervent. 48 

46 Hill perhaps deserved them. He notes (preface to Judgment 
Day) that in the Creation he had confined himself to the Mosaic ac- 
count; but he needed the whole Planetary System for the Conflagra- 
tion. 

47 See The Muse 's Original, published in 1729, but probably written 
about 1721, as it is said in Cibber's Lives to have been among the 
first of his poems. 

48 The Fatal Extravagance was performed April 21, 1721. 



172 AAEON HILL 

Hill did not fail to put in a word for Mitchell in the 
Plain Dealer: he quotes from the Ode to Music, and he 
devotes an entire number to exclamatory commendation of 
the "North British Muse," whose poems, to Lady Somer- 
ville and on the death of the Countess of Grantham, are 
quoted. 49 They appear in Mitchell's Poems on Several 
Occasions (1729), in company with further expressions of 
gratitude to Hill; one poem thanks him for "brassing his 
Muse 's brow. ' ' Perhaps the state of the brow of Mitchell 's 
muse is illustrated by his requests to Walpole in several 
of these poems : a modest suggestion that he would like the 
governorship of Duck Island in St. James's Park is fol- 
lowed up by a demand, first to be made poet-laureate, and 
then secretary of state for Scotland. 

The presence of both the Hills, together with Dyer and 
Victor, among the subscribers to the 1729 volume, indicates 
the continuance of an acquaintance intimate enough to 
include tea-parties with Clio and Miranda (Mrs. Hill). 
But even at the time of these amicable tea-drinkings (about 
1726, or earlier), 50 Mitchell was not acceptable to some of 
the group; to Thomson, he was "that planet-blasted fool," 51 
and there is a well-known exchange of courtesies between 
the two poets over the merits of Winter. 52 Later on, when 
he had earned his title of "Sir Robert Walpole's poet," he 
must have been still less popular among his former friends 

49Nos. 36 and 71. 

so A poem in the volume refers to them ; Hill was in Scotland much 
of the time between 1726 and 1729. 

si Philobiblon Society Miscellanies, IV, 27. Thomson to Mallet. 
52 Mitchell sent back the MS. of the poem with these lines: 
"Beauties and faults so thick lie scattered here, 
Those I could read, if these were not so near." 
Thomson replied with equal politeness: 

"Why not all faults, injurious Mitchell! why 
Appears one beauty to thy blasted eye?" etc. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 173 

in the Opposition. There is nothing to show how Hill him- 
self regarded the career of his promising North Briton 
after 1729. 

It was to David Mallet that Thomson confided his un- 
flattering opinion of Mitchell, and perhaps Mallet then 
shared it. But a few years before, while still in Scotland, 
Mallet had watched Mitchell's proceedings in London with 
great interest. He noted the success of his tragedy; he 
read "with a great deal of pleasure" one canto of his 
heroi-comical poem, The Cudgell; and he heard that he was 
"ina very fair character at London, . . . valued by several 
of the greatest wits, as Mr. Pope, Mr. Watts, Mr. Hill, etc." 
Not until he secured an appointment as tutor in the Mont- 
rose family, however, did Mallet himself come to London; 
he was a more canny person than Mitchell or Thomson, 
and seems never to have been in uncomfortable straits. He 
always played his cards well, if not always quite scrupu- 
lously. But though he had provided for his subsistence, 
he had his literary reputation yet to make. 

He brought with him, when he came to London about 
August, 1723, a ballad which he had already shown to 
Allan Ramsay, for Ramsay's poem — To David Malloch on 
his Departure from Scotland 53 — refers to him as 

" He that could in tender strains 
Raise Margaret's plaining shade, 
And paint distress that chills the veins, 
While William's crimes are red." 

The discovery, in 1871 54 and 1878, of two broadsides, the 
latter bearing a revenue stamp of the year 1711, has proved 
that some unknown earlier poet had raised Margaret's 
shade and painted her distress in terms Mallet paid him the 
compliment of adopting almost verbatim. The broadside, 

53 Published in 1723. 

s* This copy is in the British Museum, Col. 1876, folio 107. 



174 AARON HILL 

probably itself based on an older version known at least as 
far back as the time of Beaumont and Fletcher, is entitled 
William and Margaret, an Old Ballad. It has been sug- 
gested that Mallet secured a copy from one of the travelling 
chapmen in Scotland ; it must have been unfamiliar, except 
to the class reached by the chapmen, to enable Mallet to 
impose it on his contemporaries as his own. The precise 
way in which he went about it is not clear. He may have 
sent the ballad anonymously to the Plain Dealer; he may 
have arranged with the editor to have it published anony- 
mously; or it may have come into Hill's hands through one 
of the scattered broadsides, and been first printed without 
Mallet's knowledge. 

In the 36th number of the Plain Dealer, Hill announces 
his intention of unveiling obscure merit, and after a fling 
or two at the poor judgment displayed by men of quality 
and at the present low state of wit, he eulogizes the muse 
of our ancestors in the following picturesque terms : ' ' The 
slender shape of the modern Muse is made for becoming the 
hoop-petticoat; but there was a charming majestic naked- 
ness in that nervous simplicity and plain soundness of 
pathetic nature which went to the hearts of our forefathers, 
without stopping at their fancy, or winding itself into their 
understanding through a maze of mystical prettinesses." 
All this is prefatory to praise of the old ballads, and par- 
ticularly of William and Margaret. This and another 
ballad he found on the torn leaf of one of the halfpenny 
miscellanies known as "garlands," which he picked up on 
Primrose Hill. Who the author of "this melancholy piece 
of finished poetry" is he does not know, but it has a touch 
of Homer 's sublimity. In fact, ' ' such ballads were the rev- 
erend fragments of disjointed Homer, when they were sung 
about the streets of the Grecian cities, before Lycurgus [sic] 
caused the limbs to be assembled into union ; and so pieced, 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 175 

redeemed, and consecrated them to the end of time." He 
pleases himself with the idea that Shakespeare might have 
written it — it has his ' ' peculiar, solemn power to touch this 
churchyard terror, very visible in the ghost of this ballad. ' ' 
He discusses the poem in detail : the description of the lady 
"judiciously detains" the reader and allows the picture to 
sink in, so that when she opens her speech with the sharp 
summons ' ' Awake ! " we are prepared to know and pity 
her; "nothing was ever juster, or more strikingly imagined, 
than this comparison of the ghost's face to an April sky 
(which is at best but faintly shining, and is here made 
fainter still by a scattering cloud which dims it), — to the 
shadow, as it were, ... of a light not visible. ' ' Altogether, 
"it is a plain and noble masterpiece of the natural way 
of writing. ' ' 

Were Primrose Hill and the halfpenny garland a literary 
device, or did the ballad really come to Hill in some such 
way as he describes? The fact that he took the liberty of 
altering "an obsolete low phrase here and there" — thus 
doing his little best to destroy that simplicity he so much 
admired 55 — lends some support to his account: he would be 
less likely to tamper with the work of a living (even if 

55 The different versions of the first lines of the ballad are interest- 
ing: in The Knight of the Burning Pestle — 

' ' When it was grown to dark midnight, 
And all were fast asleep" — 
in the broadside — 

' ' When all was wrapt in dark midnight, 
And all were fast asleep" — 
in the Plain Dealer — 

"When Hope lay hushed in silent night, 
And Woe was wrapt in sleep" — 
in Mallet's later versions— 

' ' 'Twas in the silent solemn hour. 
When night and morning meet." 



176 AARON HILL 

anonymous) author than with a ballad he believed ancient. 
But whether Mallet had planned the publication or not, 
he found the moment propitious to write to the Plain 
Dealer and claim the poem so glowingly advertised. In the 
46th number, Hill, overjoyed to find it the work of a young 
North Briton, congratulates Scotland on the possession of 
a rising genius, whose fine qualities include, if not uncon- 
sciousness of his own merit, at least sincere modesty con- 
cerning it. He then quotes the letter sent by the modest 
young genius, who, after expressing surprise and pleasure 
that a "simple tale of his writing" should merit the ap- 
probation of the Plain Dealer, relates the unhappy accident 
on which he declares he based the story, — the betrayal and 
death of a young lady whose lover refused to marry her. 56 
The verse quoted by Merrythought in The Knight of the 
Burning Pestle suggested to him a ballad treatment of the 
tragedy : 

" These lines, naked of ornament, and simple as they are, 
struck my fancy. I closed the book, and bethought myself that 
the unhappy adventure I have mentioned above, which then came 
fresh into my mind, might naturally raise a tale upon the appear- 
ance of this ghost. It was then midnight. All around me was 
still and quiet. These concurring circumstances worked my soul 
to a powerful melancholy. I could not sleep; and at that time I 
finished my little poem, such as you see it here." 

Mallet complained that his letter was printed "without 
his privacy" and "altered in some places for the worst." 57 
This sounds disingenuous — he could scarcely have had any 
other motive in sending it except that of having it pub- 
lished, and the injury it suffered through alteration was 
probably a trifle compared with the substantial benefit of 
the advertisement. So artistic and circumstantial a nar- 

ss The lover and the lady were both identified by later critics. 
« Mallet to Ker, October 17, 1724. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 177 

rative no doubt delighted Hill beyond measure, and in- 
creased his enthusiasm for poem and author. The ballad, 
introduced under such favorable auspices, became popular, 
and was reprinted in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, 5 * in 
the Hive 59 and in other collections, with variations that 
have furnished a pleasant little problem for later critics. 60 
Mallet's reputation was made. 61 

Had Mallet been persecuted as well as talented, Hill's 
support would have been even more enthusiastic than it 
was. Richard Savage was both: he not only wrote a 
tragedy, but claimed to be the unhappy hero of one; and 
the story he told was one to call forth the most heart-felt 
sympathy from a man like Hill, and even from the far 
more strong-minded Dr. Johnson. 

Just when Hill and Savage first became acquainted is 

58 Vol. II (1724). 

59 Vol. I (2d eel., 1724). 

eo For details of the discussion of the ballad and of Mallet 's author- 
ship see the following: Notes and Queries, 7th S., II, 4, 132, 410, 490; 
The Roxburgh Ballads, III, 667 f.; The Antiquary, I, 8, 95, 140 
(March, 1880) ; Art. on Mallet in the Diet, of Nat. Biography. 

si His talent and skill were sufficient to maintain this reputation 
during his lifetime. From the success of Eurydice (1731), Mustapha 
(1739), and Alfred (1740), to his marriage with the wealthy Miss 
Elstob and his appointment as under-secretary to the Prince of 
Wales (1742), his rise was steady. After the production of Eurydice, 
Hill took occasion, in the course of some gratuitous advice to Walpole 
(March 12, 1731, Works, I, 51), to recommend Mallet to his favor; 
but Walpole did not respond, and it was with the Opposition that 
Mallet found his profit. When the Prince commanded the perform- 
ance of Mustapha and ignored the claims of Caesar, Hill bore the 
shock cheerfully, — pleased, in fact, that it fell at a time when the 
disordered state of his affairs made "the little benefit in view from 
the coming on of a play of some pleasure and use in the prospect" 
(Hill to Mallet, January 25, 1739, Works, I, 330). They remained 
on excellent terms until Hill's death; one or two later incidents of 
their friendship have a place in the account of Hill's relations with 
Eichardson. 
13 



178 AARON HILL 

not known. The Life of Savage, published in 1727, speak- 
ing of his loss of a pension from the actress Mrs. Oldfield 
after the Bubble disasters, adds, "He would have been 
reduced to as great extremities as ever, if his merit had 
not recommended him to the ornament of English poesy, 
Aaron Hill, Esq. ; miserable as he was in every other part 
of his life, his intimacy and friendship with this gentleman 
was a happiness he has been much envied for." And 
Johnson states that for some time before 1723, Savage had 
been distinguished by Hill with "very particular kind- 
ness. ' ,ea The kindness must have been ill repaid : " I have 
been so angry with Mr. Savage of late," wrote Hill to 
Victor in February, 1723, "that I believed he could never 
have pleased me again ; but as he came to me in your letter, 
he was so pleasantly dressed, that I was forced to receive 
him smiling, in spite of spleen and resentment." 63 
Savage's situation at the time — he was then writing Sir 
Thomas Overbury — might well have disarmed Hill's anger. 
He was often without lodging or meat, with no conveni- 
ences for study except the fields and the streets; "there 
he used to walk and form his speeches, and afterwards step 
into a shop, beg for a few moments the use of the pen and 
ink, and write down what he had composed, upon paper 
which he had picked up by accident." 64 

Had Savage's distress failed to touch him, Hill was 
not the man to resist the delicate flattery of the verses 
Savage sent, with a request that Hill correct his tragedy : 65 

" Thy touch brings the wished stone to pass, 
So sought, so long foretold; 
It turns polluted lead or brass, 
At once to purest gold." 

62 Johnson 's Lives, ed. G. B. Hill, II, 339. 

63 February 21. Victor's Hist, of the Theatres, II, 171. 
e* Johnson's Lives, II, 338-339. 

es Savage, Works, 1791. The stanza quoted is the last. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 179 

Though, when the corrections came back, Savage was not 
entirely delighted with the golden touch, and even rejected 
several passages, Hill did not resent the neglect of his 
alterations, and furnished the prologue and epilogue. 66 
Savage thanked him profusely in the advertisement to the 
published tragedy: 67 "My gratitude prompts me to declare 
the obligations I have to my best and dearest friend, Mr. 
Aaron Hill, for his many judicious corrections in this 
tragedy. On that worthy gentleman (whose mind is en- 
riched with every noble science, and in whose breast all the 
virtues of humanity are comprised), it will be my pride to 
offer my sentiments in a more distinguishing manner here- 
after." Possibly to this period may be referred the ad- 
monitions mentioned in The Friend, later addressed to Hill : 

" Oft when you saw my youth wild error know, 
Reproof, soft-hinted, taught the blush to glow. 
Young and unformed, you first my genius raised, 
Just smiled, when faulty, and when moderate, praised." 68 

If Hill taught Savage to blush, it was an accomplishment 
he soon forgot. 

Without the publicity afforded by the Plain Dealer, it is 
unlikely that Savage's account of his birth and his mis- 
fortunes would have obtained the wide credence and 
aroused the sympathy it did. The steps in the gradual 
elaboration of this story are interesting. When he pub- 
lished his comedy, Love in a Veil, in 1718, he made his first 
public appearance as ' ' Richard Savage, son of the late Earl 
Rivers." In Curll's Poetical Register (1719), he is de- 
scribed as Earl Rivers 's son, and a few details are added, — 
details that are meagre compared with the artistic complete- 
ness of the account in the Plain Dealer. The 15th number 

66 Johnson 's Lives, II, 340. 

67 Edition of 1724. 

68 Savage's Miscellany, and Savage's Works, 1791, I, 165. 



180 AARON HILL 

printed a poem of Savage's, 69 with a few remarks on the 
merit of the author and the uncommon cruelty of his 
mother; and then, in the 28th number, appeared a letter 
from "Amintas." Was this letter really written by some 
unknown Amintas, or by Hill, or by Savage himself ? It is 
impossible to say ; for the device of an anonymous letter is 
so common that it proves nothing. But Savage's testi- 
mony in The Friend points to Hill as the author : 

" Me shunned, me ruined, such a mother's rage ! 
You sung, till Pity wept o'er every page. 
You called my lays and wrongs to early fame." 

And in the preface to the Miscellany he states that the 
author of the Plain Dealer pointed out his unhappy story 
to the world with a touching humanity. 

The story, whether written by Hill, or Savage, or 
Amintas, is indeed touchingly told. The narrator, after 
recounting several instances of the mother's cruelty, goes 
on as follows : 

"I forbear to be too particular on any of these heads, 
because I know it would give him pain, for whose sake only 
I remember them. For while Nature acts so weakly on the 
humanity of the parent, she seems, on the son's side, to 
have doubled her usual influence. Even the most shocking 
personal repulses, and a series of contempt and injuries 
received at her hands, through the whole course of his life, 
have not been able to erase from his heart the impressions 
of his filial duty; nor, which is much more strange! of his 
affection. I have known him walk three or four times, in a 
dark evening, through the street this mother lives in, only 
for the melancholy pleasure of looking up at her windows, 
in hopes to catch a moment's sight of her, as she might 
cross the room by candle-light." If she but knew how 
tenderly he thought of her, she would surely relent. Then 
69 To Dyer, in praise of Clio's picture (Savage's Worlcs, I, 159). 



HILL AND HIS CIKCLE ABOUT 1725 181 

follow verses, written, says "Amintas," at a time "when I 
know not which was most to be wondered at: that he 
should be serene enough for poetry, under the extremity of 
ill-fortune ! Or that his subject should be the praise of 
her, to whom he owed a life of misery!" The lines appear 
in Hill's Works, as "made for Mr. S-v-ge, and sent to my 
Lady M-ls-d, his mother." 70 If they were written by Hill, 
the cause for Amintas 's wonder vanishes. They picture 
Alexis, friendless and alone, thrown in wild disorder on his 
cold bed, and sighing over his fate, neglected by the mother 
who had cast him on the world's bleak wild. He calls her, 
nevertheless, "the sweet neglecter of his woes," whose soul 
melts at every misfortune but his. Both letter and poem 
conclude in somewhat the same strain • perhaps the mother 
needs merely to be touched into a sense of her mistake to 
atone for it. Rather oddly, the Plain Dealer, in the course 
of his editorial comments on this letter, advises silence 
about our miseries. 

In no. 73, Savage writes under his own name in regard 
to the proposal of a Miscellany. He expresses himself as 
most grateful for the kind reflections made on his un- 
fortunate case by the Plain Dealer, and encloses "convinc- 
ing original letters ' ' to prove that less had been said of his 
wrongs and sufferings "than the unhappy truth could have 
justified." These papers furnish one of the puzzles of the 
story, — a puzzle that W. Moy Thomas, in several articles 
published in 1858, solved very much to Savage's disad- 
vantage. 71 He noted the inconsistencies in the different ac- 
counts of the finding of the papers; the curious fact that 
they were never published, though, if authentic, they would 
have established the story beyond doubt; and the other 
curious fact that they disappeared after convincing Aaron 

70 IV, 51. Savage probably refers to them in the lines quoted above, 
'i Notes and Queries, 2d S., VI, 361, 385, 425, 445. 



182 AARON HILL 

Hill that Savage was indeed an injured nobleman. 72 
Savage's latest biographer, though convinced that he was 
no deliberate impostor, and cannot be held responsible for 
inconsistencies in accounts not certainly written by him, 
has no solution for the puzzle. 73 Possibly the papers were 
convincing enough to stand the scrutiny of those whose 
sympathies were already enlisted in his behalf, but not 
convincing enough to be tested by impartial or hostile 
examination. "W. Moy Thomas called Hill foolish and 
good-natured for believing in Savage, and Professor Louns- 
bury speaks of his abounding generosity and correspond- 
ing lack of sense ; 74 but it is certainly no reproach to be 
foolish and kind with Dr. Johnson and Pope. 

The Plain Dealer articles had so good an effect that 
"many persons of quality, of all ranks and of both sexes/' 
without waiting to be applied to, sent in their subscrip- 
tions; 75 and Savage, going a few days after to Button's 
Coffee House (where, to save his modesty, he had asked 
that subscribers' names be sent), found there seventy 
guineas, "which had been sent him in consequence of the 
compassion excited by Mr. Hill's pathetic representa- 
tion." 76 

Representations on Savage's behalf were continually re- 
quired of his friends. At the time of his conviction for 
murder (December, 1727), Hill was undoubtedly among 
those who solicited his pardon, whether or not his plea 
actually drew tears from the Queen ; 77 and he was probably 

72 Plain Dealer, no. 73. 

73 S. V. Makower: Richard Savage, a Mystery in Biography, 1909. 

74 T. R. Lounsbury, The Text of Shakespeare, 372. 

75 Preface to the Miscellany; nos. 28 and 73 of the Plain Dealer 
were reprinted there. 

76 Johnson 's Lives, II, 342-343. 

77 As "I. K. " states in the life prefixed to Hill's Dramatic Works. 
"I. K. " cannot be trusted not to exaggerate the achievements of his 
subject; the two poems (The Bastard and The Volunteer Laureate) 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 183 

the author of a letter, printed in the Life of Savage pub- 
lished during the trial, ' ' supposed to be wrote by one of the 
gentlemen before-mentioned for having publicly expressed 
his compassion for Mr. Savage's sufferings." The only 
"gentlemen before-mentioned" are Steele, Wilks, and Hill, 
and the only one of the three who expressed his compassion 
in a conspicuously public manner was Hill. The letter is 
addressed to "a noble Lord, in behalf of Mr. Savage and 
Mr. Gregory"; as to the former's character, the writer 
says: "I have known and conversed with [him] several 
years, and can therefore more fully speak him : I have dis- 
covered in him a mind incapable of evil ; I have beheld him 
sigh for the distressed, when more distressed himself; I 
have seen him give that relief to others, which not long 
before he has in some degree wanted. He is so far from a 
litigious man, that he was always more ready to stifle the 
remembrance of an injury than to resent it." 

Whether Hill wrote this or not, it accurately represents 
his attitude towards Savage — an attitude that remained 
unchanged until Savage's death, though their relations 
were much less intimate after 1730. 78 When Lord Tyrcon- 
nel took Savage under his protection, Hill congratulated 
him on this deed of humanity to an unfortunate kinsman ; 79 
and later, having heard vague reports of a quarrel, he tried 
to persuade Savage to make it up. 80 The few letters that 

he declares to be the work of Hill are not among his collected poems, 
and show no special characteristics of his style; they are probably 
rightly ascribed to Savage. 

78 Savage's Wanderer (1729) mentions Hill, — "to virtue and the 
muse forever dear." Hill refers to "poor unhappy Savage" in a 
letter to Eichardson, April 4, 1745. Eichardson advised him not to 
read Johnson's Life, because of its references to his peculiar style. 

79 Hill to Tyrconnel, March 10, 1731. Works, I, 49. 

so Hill to Savage, June 23, 1736 (Works, I, 337) : "I am sure your 
just sense of what he once was will prevail over any less agreeable 
remembrance of what he may have since seemed or been." 



184 AARON HILL 

passed between them are pleasant but not very significant. 
Hill may have done Savage some further service about 
1736, in connection with a law-suit which he offered to use 
his influence in settling; and in the Gentleman's Magazine 
for November, 1736, The Friend, with its tribute to Hill, 
was reprinted. 81 In the same year Hill wrote to Thomson : 
"Some of his friends make complaints of certain little 
effects of a spleen in his temper, which he is no more able 
to help and should, therefore, no more be accountable for, 
than the misfortunes to which . . . his constitution may 
have owed it originally " ; a pension from the king should 
place him above those mortifications in life which "must 
have soured his disposition, and given the unreflecting part 
of his acquaintance occasion to complain, now and then, of 
his behaviour. " 8 - 

Such charity would have done Hill credit even if Savage 
had been uniformly grateful. But that was not his way. 
His esteem was no very certain possession, as Johnson said ; 
"he would lampoon at one time those whom he had praised 
at another." 83 And Hill did not escape. There is a hint 
in one of Thomson's letters of "barbarous provocation": 
"Nothing is to me a stronger instance of the unimprovable 
nature of that unhappy creature [Savage] of whom you 
speak so compassionately, notwithstanding of the barbarous 
provocation he has given you, than his remaining bleak and 
withered under the influences of your conversation — a cer- 
tain sign of a field that the Lord has cursed." 84 Yet Hill 
evidently forgave this provocation, whatever it was, as he 
had the injury of three or four years before. 

si Thomson writes to Hill, May 11, 1736, Col. of 1751; "Poor Mr. 
Savage would be happy to pass an evening with you; his heart burns 
towards you with the eternal fire of gratitude; but how to find him 
requires more intelligence than is allotted to mortals." 

82 May 20, 1736, Works, I, 237. 

S3 Johnson's Lives, II, 359. 

84 Thomson to Hill, April 27, 1726. Col, of 1751. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 185 

The friendship of Hill with Savage, and of both with 
Mallet, Clio, Dyer, and Thomson, was most intimate while 
the Miscellany was in process of publication ; and the poems 
in that collection give us a glimpse of the little mutual 
admiration society over which Hill presided. Of the 
ninety-two poems, more than one-third — and among these 
the longest selections — are. Hill's; they include several 
already published, several apparently new. 85 The Picture 
of Love is printed entire ; there is a long passage from the 
seventh book of Gideon, some Scriptural paraphrases, a few 
translations from the Lusiads, The Happy Maw, 86 letters on 
riches and poverty by Mr. Marshall Smith and Hill, various 
epitaphs, serious and jocose, and complimentary lines to 
Mrs. Howard and several unidentified but charming ladies. 
Of the other contributors, Savage himself comes next with 
fourteen poems; then Clio with nine; William Popple, 
John Dyer, and "Miranda, consort of Aaron Hill," have 
six apiece; Mallet, Mrs. Haywood, Concanen, and Thomas 
Cooke, one or more. The depression inspired by most of 
this verse is lightened a little by two pieces of real merit, — 
Dyer's Country Walk and Grongar Hill (in its Pindaric 
form). Most noticeably frequent are the compliments in- 
terchanged among the authors themselves. All the flattery 
usually at the service of noble patrons is here poured out 
on one another. Two duties were incumbent on members 
of the circle: they must vow devotion to Clio, and they 
must praise Hillarius and all his works. 

For this name Hill was indebted to Mrs. Eliza Haywood, 
for whose Fair Captive he wrote the epilogue in 1721. s7 

85 All but a few were republished in his Works. 
se This has a couplet that has invited scornful quotation : 
' ' Lengths of wild garden his near views adorn, 
And far-seen fields wave with domestic corn." 
(Johnson's Lives, II, 342, n. 4). 
87 The epilogue is upon the hardships of a Turkish wife, the play 



186 AARON HILL 

His christening perhaps took place soon after, for in an 
Irregular Ode, published in 1724, Mrs. Haywood defends 
the name against the objections of Mr. Walter Bowman, 
professor of Mathematics: it is "far beneath the mighty 
wearer's worth," but to describe his charms in a name is a 
perplexing problem: 

" A name it must be which implies 
At once the wonders of his soul and eyes; 
Cherubial sweetness! godlike majesty! 
Numberless myriads of divinities 
Which sparkling in his looks, his words, his works we see ! " 

" Soft as his voice ! but lofty as his mien. 
Each thrilling syllable pleased awe impart, 
Which through the ear may strike the heart." 

Should this task prove too much for mortal wit, the poetess 
suggests a pilgrimage to the heavenly throne, where Moses, 
Gideon, and David, shining more glorious by reason of his 
lays, will hail your approach; angels will second your re- 
quest ("angels are his admirers too!"), and the Almighty, 
with a pleased regard, will reward your devotion with the 
gift of an adequate name. Until that happy moment, 
Eliza's choice shall live: 

" Through every orb Hillarius shall be heard, 
And altars to his shining virtues reared." 88 

The poems of Hillarius had a very disturbing effect on 
Mrs. Haywood; even through the disguise of anonymity, 
assumed by the muse of Hill on one occasion, her soul 
acknowledged the magnetic call, and cried in transport — 
' ' 'tis Hillarius ! " To a thoughtless inquiry how she liked 
a poem of his, she replied that every sense was lost in 

having a Turkish setting, and is precisely as decent and witty as one 
would expect on such a subject in an epilogue of that period. 

88 Poems on Several Occasions (1724) in vol. II. of Mrs. Hay- 
wood's Secret Histories, Novels, and Poems, 1725. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 187 

amazement, "transport-shook Reason quit its tottering 
seat," and she lay ' ' o 'erwhelmed in seas of ecstasy." 
Once, Eliza was awed by a vision of the throne of wit, with 
all the sons of poetry about it; but a voice directed her to 
return to the world below if she wished to find all the 
beauties of past poets united in one person, with a new 
charm added. This convinced her that she never could be 
calm again, till she grew less "sensible," or Hill less 
glorious. 89 Hill, too, had a nattering vision of Eliza, and 
addressed to her a few other short poems ; one line expresses 
the effect she had on him : ' ' Her looks alarm ! but when she 
writes, she kills." 90 On the whole, however, Mrs. Hay- 
wood must be acknowledged the greater proficient in the 
gentle art of flattery — Hillarius never ascended the highest 
heaven of invention, where her muse moved freely among 
the patriarchs and the angels, under the pleased regard of 
the Almighty. 

Nor did any other of Hill's admirers rise quite to her 
heights, though several of them did rather well. In Henry 
V, for instance, Clio sees "Hillarian fire refining Shake- 
speare's gold"; and Concanen, varying the metaphor, de- 
clares that Hill found Shakespeare's play copper and left 
it gold. 91 In the case of Gideon, Dyer and Savage seem 
helpless to do much more than quote long extracts with 
despairing admiration ; they have no hope of rivalling some 

89 Mrs. Haywood edited the Tea Table. In no. 26, May 18, 1724, in 
a discussion of the present state of poetry, is a reference to Aaron 
Hill, who excels in epic and dramatic poetry both; and to the un- 
fortunate son of the late Earl Elvers, renowned in tragedy and 
occasional verse. 

90 To Elisa (Miscellany, 90); Eliza's Designed Voyage to Spain 
(Works, III, 363). The Vision (Miscellany, 71) becomes in Works, 
III, 55, The Reconciliation, and Eliza becomes Cleora. 

9i All these poems are in the Miscellany. 



188 AARON HILL 

of its ' ' surprising pictures. ' ' 92 Savage does enter the lists 
with Mrs. Haywood in a passage describing how Hillarius 's 
song flies with Pindaric fire : 

"Wafted in charniful music through the air (Gideon) 
Unstopped by clouds, it reaches to the skies, 
And joins with angels' hallelujahs there, 
Flows mixed and sweetly strikes the Almighty's ear." 

Savage and Mrs. Haywood were friends, and no doubt 
she had other friends in the group. But their Aspasia was 
"Clio," or, more prosaically, Martha Fowke, who married 
a Mr. Sansome, and died in 1736, at about the age of forty- 
six. The Poetical Register (1719) noticed her as an ac- 
complished young lady, who usually published under the 
name of Clio. Steele "often expressed in several com- 
panies the singular value and esteem" he had for her 
"extraordinary wit." 93 To Clio herself it was a hated 

92 Of the surprising pictures in Gideon, take for example this from 
Book III (it is not quoted by Dyer) — a description of the lion: 
"High o'er his back his tail turned upward waved; 



Eed were his eyes and sparkled on the plain." 
But the picture of a ram in Dyer 's Fleece is as surprising as anything 
in Gideon: 

"Long swings his slender tail; his front is fenced 

With horns Ammonian, circulating twice 

Around each open ear, like those fair scrolls 

That grace the columns of the Ionic dome." 
And Thomson's pillar (in Liberty) can stand up with the lion and 
the ram: 

' ' First unadorned 

And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose; 

The Ionic then, with decent matron grace, 

Her airy pillar heaved. ' ; 
os Dedication of her Epistles of Clio and Streplion, 1720. A 2d and 
3d edition of these Epistles — conventional couplets expressing the con- 
ventional fears and hopes of lovers — were published in 1729 and 1732. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 189 

thought that she was born a woman, "for household cares 
and empty trifles meant," and she aspired to stretch her 
mind beyond her sex, — an ill-advised attempt in that age 
and likely to cause scandal. 94 Enough notoriety finally 
attached to the name of Clio to induce Mallet to rechristen 
her "Mira." 05 Among her friends she counted Dyer. 
Mallet, Savage, Thomson, Bond, Victor, Mitchell, and Hill. 
Dyer painted her portrait, on which Hill and Savage wrote 
verses, compact about equally of flattery of the artist's 
skill and the lady's charms. Dyer's Country Walk is filled 
with longing for Clio; and as a shepherd (in the Inquiry) 
he asks his sheep if they have met with his love on moun- 
tain or in valley. Clio encourages him to write on, and 
praises his portrait of her as much as modesty will permit. 
She and Savage condole with each other on their mis- 
fortunes — her's including a murdered father and innumer- 
able lost friends, torn from her by death or absence. And 
she extends an invitation to Savage to come down from the 
stars and visit her in the humble vale where she communes 
with Nature. Mallet suffers torments in her absence, and 
describes her in terms that quite ravished Thomson, re- 
cently admitted into her circle. 

But her most accomplished and Platonic lover was Hill. 

Bond was Strephon. (See London Evening Post, Dec. 5, 1728.) Mrs. 
Haywood (Memoirs of a Certain Island adjacent to the Kingdom of 
Utopia, 1725) tells of the intrigue of the Countess of Macclesfield and 
Earl Rivers, and of Savage 's birth, in the History of Masonia, Count 
Marville and Count Biverius (p. 157 f .) . Mrs. Haywood praises Savage 
generously, but expresses unmitigated contempt for a certain "vile 
woman, ' ' a pretender to the art of poetry, who has betrayed Savage 
by her wiles. Mr. George Whicher, of the University of Illinois, who 
is engaged on a study of Mrs. Haywood, thinks this siren may be 
"Clio." I am indebted to Mr. Whicher for this reference. 

94 See a poem to Dyer, in the Miscellany. 

95 According to an attack on Savage in the British Journal, Septem- 
ber 24, 1726, quoted in Philobiblon Soc. Miscellanies, IV, 12. 



190 AARON HILL 

Scenes such as "we read in our youthful days, in Sir 
Philip Sidney's Pastoral Romance," came to Victor's mind, 
when he recalled twenty years later the hours he had spent 
with Hill, "that elegant lover," and his "charming Clio." 96 
No attempt to reconstruct this Arcadia can hope to be suc- 
cessful; Hill's letters and poems to Clio merely afford a 
few glimpses. One letter attributes the laziness she com- 
plains of feeling to a temporary absence of her soul, which 
is abroad, inspiring his and "inflaming it with a thousand 
ideas" of her loveliness. 97 Another encloses verses, written 
after seeing her at a performance of Julius Caesar; he 
found himself sorely perplexed to choose between the at- 
tractions of the bloody stage and of this vision of Clio : 

" Round her pleased mouth impatient Cupids throng, 
To snatch th'inspiring music from her tongue; 
Thick, through her sparkling eyes, break unconfined, 
The winged ideas of her crowded mind; 
A mind! that burning with inferior glow, 
Does her whole form with lustre overflow." 98 

His perplexity is not surprising. Other letters indicate an 
interchange of verses and of invitations to call. The 
Miscellany contained the poem, To Mr. Dyer, on his at- 
tempting Clio's Picture. If the task is possible to anyone, 
it is to Dyer ; but it is rather difficult for a painter 

" Strong to your burning circle to confine 
That awe-mixed sweetness and that air divine! 
That sparkling soul which lightens from within! 
And breaks in unspoke meanings through her skin." 

Of other poems, undoubtedly written about this time, one 
is on her birthday; 99 another tells how, before he met her, 

96 Victor's Letters, II, 66 (letter to Dyer). 
"Hill's Works, II, 180. Dated 1721 in the 1754 ed. 
os Dramatic Works, II, 389. 
99 Works, III, 41. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 191 

his imagination, now confined to one theme, flew restlessly 
about the universe, knowing every moment some fresh 
labor ; if he could only live till the death of Clio 's fame, he 
could hope to display all the unborn deeds within him ; 

" But, as it is, our fleeting sands so fast 
Ebb to their end and lead us to decay, 
That ere we learn to see, our daylight's past, 
And like a melting mist, life shrinks away." 10 ° 

Other love songs perhaps refer to Clio, without specifically 
mentioning her. 101 

After her death, Hill wrote to Savage : ' ' Poor C - - - o ! 
It is long since I met with an affliction more sensible than 
the information you sent me concerning her ! If half what 
her enemies have said of her is true, she was a proof that 
vanity overcomes nature in women, which it could never yet 
do in men: for desire of glory wants power to expel the 
pusillanimity natural to some ambitious princes and gen- 
erals; while in that amiable pursuer of conquests it pre- 
vailed, not only against the finest reflection, but impelled an 
assumed lightness over every constitutional modesty." 102 
The tone of the comment suggests that Hill had seen little 
of her for some years. Probably his restless imagination 
could not long be confined to the one theme of a Platonic 

100 WorTcs, III, 6. 

ioi Miranda, ' ' the consort of A. Hill, ' ' whose poems, according to 
Savage, exhibit the combined charms of Clio 's and Lady M. W. Mon- 
tagu 's, joined her husband in praising Clio. Miranda writes on sleep, 
and Clio responds; Miranda replies to that— surely in inspiring a 
poem by Clio, "never Muse so profitably slept" as hers. But both 
here and in a poem to "Aurelia, " whom she advises to be content 
with meeting Hillarius only in his poems, Miranda proclaims unequiv- 
ocally her right to Hillarius: "If on earth there can perfection be, 
Heaven, which bestowed Hillarius, gave it me." She accepted Clio, 
but refused to admit any of the Aurelias and Evandras who figure in 
the Miscellany. 

102 June 23, 1736. WorTcs, I, 338. 



192 AARON HILL 

friendship, though it was quite in accord with his elaborate- 
ness to work up such a theme for a time with great zest — 
after whatever flourish you will. 

The flourishes are astonishing, — those of the others in 
praise of Hill, as well as Hill's in praise of Clio and all the 
rest. Still, flattery of Hill was at least based on sincere 
gratitude for what he had done, and on appreciation of his 
generous nature. Its absurd exaggeration is to be ex- 
plained partly by the fact that Hill, with his genius for 
extravagant expression, set the pace in praise of his friends ; 
and they, younger and less known, could not risk the dis- 
courtesy of falling behind. This reasonable suggestion was 
made in apology for the tone of exaggeration in Thomson's 
letters to Hill. 103 But it must be remembered, too, that 
Thomson first saw Hill through the eyes of Savage and 
Mallet, when both were very grateful for Hill's encourage- 
ment, and the sight could not have been other than 
impressive. 104 

It is natural that Mallet should have introduced his 
fellow-countryman to Hill ; natural, too, that a young poet, 
coming to London in search of fame, should seek to know 
the critic who had publicly proclaimed him, on the strength 
of an early poem, "a prodigious young man." This notice 
of Thomson, inspired by his "masterly" Fragment of a 
Poem on the Works and Wonders of Almighty Power, had 
appeared in the same number of the Plain Dealer that pub- 
lished Mallet's modest confession of the authorship of the 
ballad. 105 The ' ' prodigious young man ' ' arrived in London 

!03 G. C. Maeaulay: Tlwmson, 19. 

104 Thomson knew Savage by July, 1725, as lie mentions him in 
writing to Mallet. 

los No. 46, August 28, 1724. The poem was reprinted, as given by 
Thomson to Hill, by Allan Cunningham (see Aldine ed. of Thomson's 
works, II, 161). M. Morel does not mention the Plain Dealer notice 
in his biography of Thomson. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 193 

some six months later (February, 1725), and through 
Mallet and Duncan Forbes was probably introduced to 
various literary people even before his Winter was pub- 
lished in March, 1726. The interest centres, of course, 
about the fortunes of the poem. Victor states that both he 
and his agreeable friend, Mr. Hill, saw and admired it in 
MS., and adds, ' ' I remember Mr. Malloeh . . . and I walked 
one November day to all the booksellers in the Strand and 
Fleet Street to sell the copy of this poem, and at last could 
only fix with Mr. Millar, who then lived in a little shop in 
Fleet Street." 106 This account, inaccurate as it has been 
proved in several details (Victor was writing after the lapse 
of some years), 107 is no doubt substantially true. Mallet 
would be likely to show the poem to Hill as well as to 
Victor. Various people have been mentioned as noticing 
the poem while it lay neglected at the bookseller's; 108 but 
the one person who certainly took up the cause of Thomson 
with ardor, and the only one for whose championship we 
have Thomson's testimony, was Hill. 

Hill wrote enthusiastically to Mallet about the poem; 
Thomson saw the letter; and thereupon, according to Dr. 
Johnson, "courted Hill with every expression of servile 
adulation." 109 *The phrase is unkind, though such flights 
as these might suggest it : 110 ' ' Though I cannot boast the 
honor and happiness of your acquaintance, and ought with 
the utmost deference and veneration to approach so 
supreme a genius, yet my full heart is not to be repressed 
by formalities. ... I will not affect a moderate joy at your 

106 Original Letters, III, 27. 

107 Such as the name of the bookseller — Millan, not Millar. 

los Shiels names Whately; Johnson, Whatly; Warton, Spence; Good- 
hugh, Andrew Mitchell; Dalloway, Bundle. 

109 Lives, III, 284. 

no Thomson to Hill, April 5, 1726. All the earlier letters of 
Thomson to Hill were published in the Collection of 1751. 
14 



194 AARON HILL 

approbation, your praise ; it pleases, it delights, it ravishes 
me ! . . . That great mind, and transcendent humanity, that 
appear in the testimony you have been pleased to give my 
first attempt, would have utterly confounded me, if I had 
not been prepared for such an entertainment by your well- 
known character; which the voice of fame and your own 
masterly writings loudly proclaim. ... If I wrote all that 
admiration of your perfections and my gratitude dictate, I 
should never have done; but, lest I tire you, I'll for the 
present rather put a violence on myself." 111 

Hill's reply evidently overflowed with an expansive 
benevolence that led Thomson in his next letter to discourse 
on "social love" as contrasted with self-love, Hill being a 
shining example of the former: "Your writings, while they 
glow with innumerable instances of strong thinking and 
sublime imagination, are peculiarly marked with this beau- 
tiful benevolence of mind. ... I am ravished with the hope 
you give me of your nearer acquaintance." 112 This hope 
was gratified on April 26, and after reflecting over night 
on the delights of the visit, Thomson wrote on the "down- 
right inspiration" of Hill's society: "There is, in your 
conversation, such a beauty, truth, force, and elegance of 
thought and expression; such animated fine sense, and 
chastised fancy; so much dignity and condescension, sub- 

111 Thomson's praise of Mallet is quite as excessive as Hill's of 
Thomson or Thomson's of Hill. In a letter to Mallet of August 11, 
1726, he declares two lines of the Excursion equal to any Shakespeare 
ever wrote on the subject; and in September he was convinced that 
Mallet must converse with the sages and heroes of antiquity: "You 
think like them too, your bosom swells with the same divine ambition, 
and would if in the same circumstances display the same heroic 
virtues, that lie all glowing at your heart." Perhaps it was because 
Mallet was never placed in those favoring circumstances that he dis- 
played such unheroie meanness in the treatment of the memory of 
his friend Pope. 

112 Letter of April 18. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 195 

lirnity, and sweetness ; in a word, such a variety of entertain- 
ment and instruction, as is beyond all admiration." 
Clearly Hill the conversationalist almost equalled in varied 
accomplishment Hill the essayist. ' ' To descend from your 
company," he goes on, "and mingle with the herd of man- 
kind, is like Nebuchadnezzar's descending from a throne to 
graze with the beasts of the field." Rather than join 
Nebuchadnezzar in the fields, Thomson feasts on the 
memory of the rich entertainment; "that little seraph, the 
young Urania," especially charmed him, — "her elegant 
turn of mind : her innocence and goodness in the choice of 
her subjects; her fancy, judgment, and ambition, above her 
years . . . are most agreeably surprising. ' ' The little seraph 
must have already begun to compose — a habit that clung to 
her all her life. 

The dedication of Winter to Sir Spencer Compton, 
Speaker of the House of Commons, had brought no response 
to prove his possession of the "fine discernment" attributed 
to him, along with all other noble qualities, by Mallet, the 
author of the eulogy. This neglect excited Hill to attack 
patrons in a poem, which he sent to Thomson and also to 
several newspapers. 113 Shun patrons, he advises Thomson, 
and stand alone ; very few peers are judges of poetic merit j 

" On verse like yours no smiles from power expect, 
Born with a worth that doomed you to neglect." 

He who 

" stoops safe beneath a patron's shade, 
Shines like the moon, but by a borrowed aid. 
Truth should, unbiassed, free and open steer." 

Thomson expressed delight at the praise and wonder at the 
fineness of the satire, — "marked with exalted sentiment and 
generous contempt. ' ' 114 The hitherto undiscerning Speaker 

us Johnson 's Lives, III, 285. 
H4 May 24, 1726. 



196 AARON HILL 

was also moved, partly by the publicity, partly by the grow- 
ing popularity of Winter, the first edition of which was 
now exhausted; and he kindly expressed a willingness to 
see the poet. "He received me," wrote Thomson to Hill, 
' ' in what they commonly call a civil manner, asked me some 
commonplace questions, and made me a present of twenty 
guineas." 115 

In the same letter that recorded the Speaker's generosity, 
Thomson enclosed, for Hill's correction, some verses by 
Mallet, to be published in the second edition of Winter; in 
his opinion, ' ' their only glorious fault, if they have any, is 
an excess of that beautiful benevolence of mind, which, 
among a thousand things, make you and him so greatly 
amiable." It was pertinent to enlarge on the benevolence 
and amiability of his friends — he needed their help to 
extricate himself from an awkward situation. He had 
planned to print in the new edition Hill's poem as well as 
Mallet's, with their fine satire on negligent patrons and 
their fervent praise of himself. But the patron had just 
signified his tardy pleasure. How persuade the two friends 
to tone down the satire, of which they were especially 
proud? Would their benevolence overcome their literary 
vanity ? How avoid offense, either to the friends who had 
championed him when the patron neglected him, or to the 
patron who had repented and paid? 

He first tried tactful hints with Hill : ' ' One of your in- 
finite delicacy will be the best judge, whether it will be 
proper to print these two inimitable copies of verses I have 
from you and Mr. Mallet, without such little alterations as 
shall clear Sir Spencer of the best satire I ever read. . . . 
Only this let me add, should you find that the case required 
some small alterations, and yet not indulge me with them, 

us June 7, 1726. The interview with the Speaker took place on 
June 4. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 197 

I shall reckon what my patron gave me a fatal present. 
Tis a thought too shocking to be borne — to lose the ap- 
plause of the great genius of the age, my charter of fame ! 
for — I will not name it. But you are too good to plague 
me so severely. I expect this favor from Mr. Mallet next 
post." 116 Mallet's favor did not come by the next post. 
Mallet and Hill each held back to see what the other would 
do; and poor Thomson, in letters of mingled entreaty and 
compliment, tried to play them off one against the other. 
Finally Mallet, declaring it out of his power to alter his 
verses, proposed suppressing the whole poem. A most un- 
pleasant notion! Thomson had expected their names to 
live together; were twenty guineas — "twenty curses on 
them !" — to be the price of his fame ? Could he not satirize 
something besides patrons, — the avarice, littleness, stupidity 
of men of fortune, or the barbarous contempt of poetry, for 
instance? "You might make a glorious apostrophe to the 
drooping genius of Britain — have Shakespeare and Milton 
in your eye, and invite to the pursuit of genuine poetry." 
Let him have anything in his eye but the Speaker. And 
yet, in a letter to Hill a few days later, Thomson expresses 
himself as still confident of receiving verses from Mallet by 
the next post ; surely Mr. Hill 's wondrous generosity is not 
going to fail in this crisis? 117 

The upshot of the little comedy was that the poems were 
printed, with their scorn practically unmodified. Hill, it is 
true, made a few trivial alterations; 118 Mallet, probably 
none, for his allusions to patrons are very pointed. Thom- 
son had preferred a possible charge of ingratitude to the 

us June 7. 

n7 See letters of Thomson to Hill of June 7, 11, and 17; and to 
Mallet, June 13 (Philobiblon Society Miscellanies, IV, 9 f.). 

us The lines quoted by Thomson in the letter are slightly different 
from those in the 2d ed. of Winter. The poem was reprinted in the 
Works, III, 77. 



198 AARON HILL 

omission of the "chalereux eloges" of his friends. 119 The 
second edition contained, besides the poems of Hill, Mallet, 
and "Mira," a grateful acknowledgment of Hill's assist- 
ance and a warm tribute to his character, which may be 
regarded as closing this chapter of their relations. 120 The 
tone of the later letters changes : Thomson, with his reputa- 
tion established, is still prodigal of compliments, but less 
obsequious ; he is addressing a friend, not a deity. 

Hill's absences in Scotland and Thomson's trip abroad 
(1730-31) interrupted the correspondence until November, 
1733, when Hill sent Zara to Thomson, with a request to 
make it known to Bubb Dodington and other influential 
friends. Thomson's reply is very cordial both to Zara and 
its author, but has the assured tone of a man who possesses 
some influence with the Dodingtons of the day. Not all 
his influence, however, with Hill's added, could overcome 
the public indifference to Liberty, which began to appear 
in December, 1734. In acknowledging the present of Part 
I, even Hill hints at a little dissatisfaction with the style: 
"How happens it that you should change a grace almost 
peculiar to yourself, in favor of transposition and ob- 
scurity, by endeavoring after beauties which, I am sure, are 
unnecessary to your poem, and (I fear) unnatural to our 
idiom?" Still, the poem is "all soul." 121 In the 28th 
number of the Prompter,' 1 " Hill quotes a passage from 
Part II, with hearty praise of its harmony and sentiment. 
But the much-needed puff apparently had little effect on a 

us L. Morel: Thomson, 61. 

120 < ' His favors are the very smiles of humanity, graceful and easy, 
flowing from and to the heart. This agreeable train of thought 
awakens naturally in my mind all the other parts of his great and 
amiable character, which I know not well how to quit, and yet dare 
not here pursue. ' ' 

i2i January 17, 1735. Works, I, 210. 

122 February 14, 1735. 



HILL AND HIS CIRCLE ABOUT 1725 199 

sale that proceeded more and more slowly as each new part 
appeared, — so slowly, in fact, that in May of the follow- 
ing year Thomson thought of annulling the bargain with 
his bookseller, who would else be a considerable loser, and 
getting out a new edition later. 1 - 3 

Naturally, the neglect of his work intensified his gloomy 
views as to the general corruption of the age. He expects 
to see "all poetry reduced to magazine miscellanies, all 
plays to mummery entertainments, and, in short, all learning 
absorbed into the sink of purely scurrilous newspapers. ' n2i 
A wrong use of the gifts of commerce turns wealth to 
private jobs, not public works; to profitable, not fine arts; 
to gain, not glory. 1 - 5 Stage affairs are quite hopeless — he 
never expects to see at the head of the theatres any gentle- 
man of equal judgment, genius, taste, and generosity to the 
author of the Prompters. 128 To Hill this was not at the 
time a purely visionary prospect: both Zara and the 
Prompter had achieved more success than Liberty, and he 
had in September a scheme for getting the Prince in- 
terested in a new theatre. So he cannot quite agree with 
Thomson that the root of the stage evil is too deep to be 
plucked up. In regard to affairs in general, however, he 
is entirely in accord with him : commerce and wealth have 
corrupted the English; one cannot find a people long "re- 
taining public virtue and extended commerce." Liberty 
is to Hill "the dying effort of despairing and indignant 
virtue. ' ' 127 Thomson has some hope in a copyright to pro- 
tect arts and learning ; Hill is afraid that would do no good 

123 Thomson to Hill, May 11, 1736. Col. of 1751. 

124 Thomson to Hill, August 23, 1735. 

125 May 11, 1736. 

126 August 23, 1735. 

i2T Hill to Thomson, February 17, 1736. Worlcs, I, 221. 



200 AARON HILL 

unless the public is first educated. 1 - 8 And so they end, 
gloomily shaking their heads. 

Hill's last letter to Thomson again hints at some degree 
of obscurity in Liberty, arising from the difficulty of "re- 
ducing infinity into distinction"; and he even criticizes cer- 
tain lines. But Thomson had asked for criticism, and it is 
not likely that he took offense. Though they did not again 
correspond, they exchanged occasional kind messages 
through their friends ; in July, 1744, Hill begs Richardson 
to return thanks to the author of the Seasons for remember- 
ing an old friend, "who, though he had still been for- 
gotten, would . . . have yearly traced him around with new 
delight, from spring quite down to winter." 1 - 9 

That the record of so many friendships should include no 
quarrels is a remarkable testimony to Hill's amiability. 
Possibly amenities so undiversified form monotonous read- 
ing; but the reproach of that kind of monotony was taken 
from Hill's life by Pope. 

128 Hill to Thomson, May 20, 1736, and Thomson to Hill, May 11, 
1736. 

129 Richardson 's Correspondence, ed. Mrs. Barbauld, I, 103. 



CHAPTER VI 

HILL'S BELATIONS WITH POPE 

Bernard Lintot the publisher was responsible for the 
misunderstanding that inaugurated the checkered friend- 
ship of Pope and Hill. In 1718, Hill wrote The Northern 
Star, to celebrate the achievements of Peter the Great. To 
select a foreign prince for panegyric, rather than a possibly- 
grateful dignitary near at hand, was so quixotic, that the 
poet feels called upon to explain at length that his duty is 
to search out and exalt virtue wherever he finds it — even 
if it be outside his own nation: 

" Perish that narrow pride, from custom grown, 
That makes men blind to merits not their own. 
Briton and Russian differ but in name." * 

He then pictures in glowing terms the Czar's devotion to 
both the "martial laurel and the peaceful bays": he has 
civilized his own people, made the Dane, the Swede, and 
the Turk tremble, and the lords of China shrink behind 
their famous wall ; and his piercing eye may even discover 
the secrets of the Northeast passage. At this farthest 
North, the poet stops the flight of his unbridled muse, and, 
in lines that dimly suggest the last chorus in Shelley's 
Hellas, prophesies the final overthrow of Turkey by the 
Czar: 

" Shall then at last, beneath propitious skies, 

The Cross triumphant o'er the Crescent rise? 

Shall we behold earth's long-sustained disgrace 

Revenged in arms on Osman's haughty race? 

Shall Christian Greece shake off a captive's shame, 
1 1st ed v 11. 85-87. 

201 



202 AAEON HILL 

And look unblushing at her pagan fame? 
'Twill be. — Prophetic Delphos claims her own; 
Hails her new Caesars on the Russian throne. 
Athens shall teach once more ! once more aspire ! 
And Spartan breasts reglow with martial fire! 
Still, still, Byzantium's brightening domes shall shine, 
And rear the ruined name of Constantine." 2 

Much as the poet would like to continue gazing at the star 
of the North, his eyes begin to ache, and he invites the muse 
to descend. The poem closes with a modest comparison of 
the Czar's sudden burst into glory to the appearance, at 
the Almighty fiat, of order out of chaos. 

Such is the offering consecrated to the Czar, — one that 
would have been less unworthy, wrote Hill later, "had my 
genius allowed me fire but in proportion to my inflamed 
intention." 3 However unworthy of the Czar, the poem 
was probably not, in its author's opinion, unworthy of 
Aaron Hill. But before publishing it, he decided to submit 
it to the judgment of Pope, possibly hoping in this way 
to make his acquaintance. Lintot, whom he deputed to 
take it to Pope, brought back a report that filled Hill with 
amazement: "Mr. Lintot lisped out that Mr. Pope said 
there were several good things in The Northern Star, 
but it would be taken for an insult on the government, for, 
though the Czar is King George's ally, yet we are likely to 
quarrel with Sweden; and Muscovy, whispered Bernard, 
lies, he says, in the north." 4 Mr. Courthope terms this a 
nonsensical speech 5 — though it may be worth noting that 
George I and Peter were really far from being on friendly 

2 Works, 1753, III, 195-6. 
s Preface to 3d ed. 

4 Preface to 1st ed. 

5 Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, X, 2, note. See Lecky 's Eighteenth 
Century, ch. II, on the situation between England and Kussia. About 
1715-16, Charles of Sweden and Peter formed an alliance, and there 
was danger that they might take up the cause of the Pretender. 



hill's relations with pope 203 

terms. But however nonsensical, it scarcely justified the 
passion into which Hill fell, and which informs the 
"Preface to Mr. Pope" that appeared with the first edition 
of The Northern Star. 

After quoting "honest Bernard's" statement, Hill goes 
on to attack Pope chiefly by the scornful application to him 
of lines in his own Essay on Criticism. ' ' Tis possible that 
under this disguise of opinion, your excess of good-breeding 
may have concealed your dislike of the performance"; yet 
why not avow the dislike? "Be niggard of advice on no 
pretence." The lines really applicable to the case may be: 

" All seems infected that th'inf ected spy, 
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye." 

And Hill declares, "My esteem for your genius as a poet 
is so very considerable that it is hardly exceeded by my 
contempt of your vanity." Then leaving Pope for the 
moment, he passes to characteristic reflections — arising, of 
course, out of the supposed criticism of his subject — upon a 
narrow and restricted view of human affairs. Suppose the 
Czar were our enemy; "are his merits less shining? Does 
his glory depend on his friendship for Britain? Con- 
temptible meanness of thought ! . . . Next to deserving well 
ourselves, it is the noblest perfection of Nature to admire 
and applaud those who do so." This narrowness of mind 
he attributes in large measure to the flatteries of poets, 
"who generally writing for a precarious subsistence can 
no way so easily succeed as by falling in with the weakness 
and bias of men's natures. ... A mere poet, that is to say, 
a wretch who has nothing but the jingle in his brains to 
ring chimes to his vanity, and whose whole trade is rhyme- 
jobbing, — such a creature is certainly the most worthless 
incumbrance of his country." General as this is, it was 
undoubtedly levelled at Pope, to whom the preface returns 
for a final petulant fling: "If, after all, it was not the 



204 AARON HILL 

subject, but the poem, that found no favor in his eyes, I 
will take upon me to assure him, it sues not for the bless- 
ing ; let him take it as ill as he pleases, I dare at least under- 
take, it shall easily defend itself against any attack of his 
making; which pray, Sir, inform him, since you are his 
greatest admirer." 

Of this outburst Pope took no notice, and Hill must have 
grown somewhat ashamed of it; for in 1720 he sent Pope 
another poem — The Creation — accompanied by an apology. 6 
Pope, in his acknowledgment, 7 declares himself pleased at 
the opportunity the gift offers of assuring Hill that he 
neither did, nor intended doing, him the least injury; he 
had been in so great a hurry at the time Lintot showed him 
the poem that he postponed a careful reading for a day or 
two; but the parts he did glance over he liked, and told 
Lintot so. "I think it incumbent on any well-meaning man 
to acquit himself of an illgrounded suspicion in another, 
who perhaps means equally well, and is only too credulous. 
I am sincerely so far from resenting this mistake that I am 
more displeased at your thinking it necessary to treat me 
so much in a style of compliment as you do in your letter." 
With commendable caution, he refrains from comment on 
the new poem, except to say, "I am sure the person who is 
capable of writing it can need no man to judge it," — a re- 
mark susceptible of various interpretations. 

So far, Pope clearly had the advantage. On no provoca- 
tion but a reported remark, too absurd on its face to be 
authentic, he had been attacked publicly and intemper- 
ately, and had kept silent, until his enemy calmed down 
and made overtures, to which he responded pleasantly. It 
was wise treatment for a man of Hill's temperament, — 
placated as easily as he was aroused, and quick to appre- 

6 Quoted in part in Elwin and Courthope's Pope, X, 3. 

7 Pope to Hill, March 2 (1720). Misdated 1731, in the Col. of 1751. 



hill's relations with pope 205 

ciate even the appearance of sincerity. He now replied 
fervently : 8 he is under the greatest confusion at realizing 
the crime he has been guilty of ; he might have known from 
Pope's writings the extent of his soul; to call his guilt 
credulity is too generous — "it was a passionate and most 
unjustifiable levity"; it was indeed little less than a miracle 
that he attempted to offend one whose mind at least had 
been his ' ' intimate acquaintance, and regarded with a kind 
of partial tenderness"; Pope has punished his injustice 
with double sharpness by his manner of receiving it. Not 
content with writing this humble apology, Hill made it 
public by printing it in another preface to Pope, in The 
Creation; and he added certain compliments: "I look up 
to you with extraordinary comfort, as to a new constella- 
tion breaking out upon our world with equal heat and 
brightness, and cross-spangling, as it were, the whole 
heaven of wit with your Milky Way of genius. ' ' 9 

An incident growing out of the publication of The 
Northern Star forms the subject of the next letter, from 
Pope, six years later. A second edition of the poem ap- 
peared in 1724, with a Latin translation by Hill's brother 
Gilbert; and through this Latin version, the poem "with- 
out any design or application of the author . . . reached 
the hands of that truly great and imperial foreign sovereign 
in whose praise it was composed." 10 The death of the 
Czar in March, 1725, was the signal for a third edition, 
previously announced in the Plain Dealer, 11 where several 

s Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, X, 3. 

9 Dr. George Sewell, M.D., who favored Hill with some criticism of 
the poem (Hill's Works, II, 406 f.), objected to a constellation as 
large as the Milky Way; but Hill defends the phrase vehemently — 
he can make a new constellation of his own as large as he chooses 
(Works, I, y 1). 

io Plain Dealer, preface to 1734 ed. Bond there says that he sug- 
gested the translation. 

ii No. 106. 



206 AARON HILL 

papers had recently appeared, defending the Czar's treat- 
ment of his son and discussing the possible danger of a war 
with Russia. 12 Shortly after, Hill was "surprised by the 
condescension of a compliment from the Empress, his relict 
and immediate successor," in the form of a gold medal, 13 
sent by the Czar's order. 14 Papers relating to him were 
also promised to Hill, to serve as the basis of a biography ; 
and some of them actually arrived: "I have," he wrote to 
Pope years later, 15 "papers in my hands, which throw the 
noblest and most beautiful colors on a circumstance which 
the malice of some great courts in Europe has taken pains 
to misrepresent and to blacken. The shortened reign of the 
lady deprived me of great part of a treasure, which I see, 
by what came to my hands, had been vast and invaluable." 
To these papers, which he evidently supposed were in 
Hill's hands, Pope refers in the letter of 1726 : 16 "What a 
satisfaction to behold that perfect likeness, without art, 
affectation, or even the gloss of coloring, with a noble 
neglect of all that finishing and smoothing, which any other 

12N0S. 20, 24, 75. 

13 Preface to 5th ed. of Northern Star, 1739. 

14 A Dr. J. Blinman brought the medal, as he reminds Hill in a 
letter of May 21, 1736 (Col. of 1751), expressing a desire to renew 
their acquaintance. 

is January 15, 1739, Works, I, 327 f. Hill wished Pope to omit a 
couplet, relating to the Czar's marriage, in one of his satires. 

is In the Col. of 1751, where most of the letters from Pope to Hill 
were first published. In Elwin and Courthope's Pope, where all but 
two of the letters are reprinted, half a dozen are incorrectly stated to 
have appeared originally in 1753. Several are wrongly dated in the 
1751 pamphlet, and the dates corrected by Elwin and Courthope ; one, 
of September 29, 1731, is not corrected — it belongs to the year 1738, 
as the references to forthcoming tragedies by Thomson and Mallet 
clearly prove; the play returned to Hill is Caesar, not Athelwold. The 
two letters from Pope, not in Elwin and Courthope's edition, are 
printed in the Life prefixed to Hill's Dramatic Works; they are dated 
July 15 [1738], and January 22 [1739]. 



hill's relations with pope 207 

hand would have been obliged to bestow on so principal a 
figure ! I write this to a man whose judgment I am certain 
of. . . . There will be no danger of your dressing this Mars 
too finely, whose armor is not gold but adamant, and whose 
style in all probability is much more strong than it is 
polished." The tone of the entire letter suggests only the 
most friendly relations between Hill and Pope. They had 
exchanged poems; Hill had evidently defended Pope 
against some of the "silly attacks" arising out of the sur- 
reptitious publication of the letters to Cromwell. "Nor am 
I ashamed," declares Pope, "of those weaknesses of mine 
which they have exposed in print . . . since you have found 
a way to turn those weaknesses into virtue, by your partial 
regard of them. ... I can make you no better return for 
your great compliment upon me . . . but by telling you, that 
it is honor enough to reward all my studies, to find my 
character and reputation is part of the care of that person 
to whom the fame and glory of Peter Alexiowitz was 
committed. ' ' 

There is certainly nothing here to indicate that Pope 
resented the references to him in the Plain Dealer that Mr. 
Courthope calls uncomplimentary. 17 Praise of Dennis 
could scarcely be construed as an attack upon Pope, unless 
to say of Dennis that he had the soul to know how far 
popularity was from being a mark of living merit is tanta- 
mount to a statement that Pope's popularity proves lack 
of merit. 18 Though no. 116 complains of the omission of 
Shakespeare's poems from Pope's six- volume edition, no. 
16 and no. 68 contain praise enough of his genius to satisfy 
the vanity of any poet. One of the most moderate passages 
declares, "The praise of Mr. Pope will be a theme for wit 
and learning when all the dukes, his patrons, shall be lost 
in the dust that covers them." 

iTElwin and Courthope 's Pope, V, 224-226. 
is Nos. 54 and 82. 



208 AARON HILL 

Yet, in spite of the absence of provocation in Hill 's paper 
and the great cordiality of the 1726 letter, "A. H." ap- 
peared in chapter VI of the Bathos (published in March, 
1727-8), among the Flying Fish — "writers who now and 
then rise upon their fins, and fly out of the profund, but 
their wings are soon dry, and they drop down to the 
bottom." Possibly Pope had been biding his time to get 
even for the Northern Star preface ; possibly he was so im- 
pressed with the absurdity of some passages in Hill 's works 
that the critic in him could not refrain from putting Hill 
where he belonged; 19 possibly Hill's preoccupation with 
his York Buildings scheme pointed him out as a compara- 
tively safe plaything. But he was not so absorbed in 
Scotch timber that his sensitive eye failed to light upon 
his initials. Of course he was quite wrong to think them 
his: Pope informed him later that the letters were "set at 
random, to occasion what they did occasion, the suspicion 
of bad and jealous writers, of which number I could never 
reckon Mr. Hill, and most of whose names I did not 
know."- Unfortunately, this ingenuous explanation did 
not accompany the initials, and Hill, taking fire promptly, 
retaliated with a copy of verses on Pope and an epigram 
on Swift, published in the Daily Journal of April 16. 

When the Dunciad appeared the next month, H--- was 
present at the diving-match, striving with the dark and 
dirty party-writers to see who best loved dirt and could 
fling filth about: 

" H tried the next, but hardly snatched from sight, 

Instant buoys up, and rises into light; 
He bears no token of the sable streams, 
And mounts far off among the swans of Thames." 21 

is Joseph Warton thought the Bathos would have been much en- 
riched by Hill's verse (Essay on Pope, II, 251). 
20 January 26, 1731. Col of 1751. 
2i Book II, 273 f. 



hill's relations with pope 209 

In the next edition (1729), two asterisks replaced the 
" H - - -, " and the following note was added : 22 ' ' This is an 
instance of the tenderness of our author. The person here 
intended writ an angry preface against him, founded on a 
mistake, which he afterwards honorably acknowledged in 
another printed preface. Since when he fell under a 
second mistake, and abused both him and his friend. He 
is a writer of genius and spirit, though in his youth he 
was guilty of some pieces bordering upon bombast. Our 
poet here gives him a panegyric instead of a satire, being 
edified beyond measure by the only instance he ever met 
with in his life of one who was much a poet confessing 
himself in an error; and has suppressed his name as think- 
ing him capable of a second repentance."- 3 

Hill was not much impressed with the tenderness of the 
reference, — the briefest connection with the filth of that 
diving-match he regarded, quite rightly, as an insult; and 
he burst again into poetry. In 1730 appeared "The 
Progress of Wit: a Caveat. For the use of an eminent 
writer. By a fellow of All-Souls. To which is prefixed 
an explanatory discourse to the reader. By Gamaliel Gun- 
son. ' ' The discourse, imitated from the introduction to the 
Key to the Rape of the Lock, makes some pretence at 
anonymity, and jokes heavily about the dark allusions in 
the work. In the poem itself, Pope is satirized under the 
name of "tuneful Alexis, the ladies' plaything and the 
muses' pride," who 

22 Book II, 285. 

23 In the edition of 1735 the line appears, "Then P- - essayed"; in 
the 1736 edition, the two asterisks are replaced, and the note on the 
line reads: "A gentleman of genius and spirit, who was secretly dipt 
in some papers of this kind, on whom our poet bestows a panegyric 
instead of a satire, as deserving to be better employed than in party 
quarrels and personal invective. ' ' 

15 



210 AARON HILL 

" Desiring and deserving others' praise, 
Poorly accepts a fame he ne'er repays; 
Unborn to cherish, sneakingly approves, 
And wants the soul to spread the worth he loves." 

Defamed by his irritated fellow-poets, and finally de- 
posed from the top of Pindus, "far-fallen Alexis" sleeps, 
and sees in a dream the river of life: the current on the 
left side — full of quicksands concealed by bright, treacher- 
ous water, where gnats, wasps, and flies, "tinged with the 
rainbow's everchanging dyes," people the sunshine — leads 
to oblivion; that on the right — broad, deep, and serene, 
dotted with green islands and peopled only by swans — leads 
to fame, the home of joy and peace, "glory unenvied and 
unslandered gain." Of the voyagers on the river, some 
seek the silent side — slowly and with difficulty; others, in 
their light galleys, shoot swiftly to the shallows and dance 
away through the "shoaly sunshine," until caught by 
whirlpool or rock. Among the glittering boats Alexis sees 
appear that of a youth "saddened by sickness and o'ercast 
by spleen, ' ' but with a living light beaming from his eyes, 

"And from his voice (for as he sailed he sung) 
Such magic sounds of melting music sprung, 
That the hushed heaven all downward seemed to bend." 

The Muses are his oarswomen, the Graces trim his sails, 
green-eyed Envy in the bottom of the boat serves merely 
as ballast, Fancy spreads a starry mantle over him, and 
Pleasure, Praise, and Beauty dance the moments away on 
the deck. Thus guided, he reaches the green islands. But 
the swans seeming tame company after the joyous throng 
in the shallow water, the youth steers his boat back, and 
starts a disdainful war against wasps and flies, while the 
drones acclaim him the prince of fly-catchers. The dream- 
ing Alexis, much concerned to see the youth sweeping to 
destruction, beseeches Fancy (the stage-manager of the 



hill's relations with pope 211 

vision) to call him by name and stop him. Fancy is 
amused that Alexis does not himself know the name : 

"His is a name that dwells on ev'ry mind, 
Tunes every tongue, and sails with ev'ry wind " — 

And Alexis hears pronounced his own name — Pope.- 4 

There is unquestionably far more praise than cavilling 
in this production. 25 The criticism that Pope was mis- 
directing his gifts in waging a war against petty dunces 
still holds its own. The preface to the Caveat speaks to 
the same purpose with more directness : the author, it 
states, confines his satire to the poet's folly, not allowing it 
to attack his wit, "which is not weaker, though less lovely, 
when it stains itself upon a dirty subject, than when it 
ornaments beauty itself. . . . What pity that the warmest 
of a certain gentleman's admirers are lately forced to con- 
fess, there are grossnesses in some of his sallies, obscene 
enough to blot out any wit but their author's; insults low 
enough to become the most vulgar-spirited among his 
enemies; and malice animated enough to be beautiful in 
any of his friends but himself." In his work are to be 
found, "among virtues we despair of equalling, errors we 
disdain to imitate." 

Until he had fired this shot, Hill did not complain of 
his inclusion in the Dunciad. But now he wrote a guile- 
less letter to Pope, sending him the Plain Dealers and a 
poem written by the promising Urania at the age of eleven, 
under the inspiration of Pope; and after noting how 
natural it is for his family to love and admire him, he ob- 
served casually: "If, after this, I should inform you that I 

24 Southey (Specimens, II, 141, 1807) thinks the character of Pope 
in this poem ' ' particularly just, elegant, and severe. ' ' 

25 "By the frequency of an advertisement which I have remarked 
in the daily papers, The Progress of Wit seems too slow to be boasted 
of." Fog's Journal, January 2, 1731. 



212 AARON HILL 

have a gentle complaint to make to and against you, con- 
cerning a paragraph in the notes of a late edition of the 
Dunciad, I fear you would think your crime too little to 
deserve the punishment of so long a letter as you are 
doomed to on that subject." 26 

Pope made haste to get his excuses in ahead of the 
threatened complaint. 27 Without denying that Hill was 
aimed at in the note, he declares the note itself to be a com- 
pliment — "so it has been thought by many, who have asked 
to whom that passage made that oblique panegyric." And 
anyway, why complain to him? "As to the notes, I am 
weary of telling a great truth, which is, that I am not the 
author of them." Mr. Courthope's comment on this last 
statement is pertinent: "It is, however, plain that Pope 
alone could have written a note stating what nobody else 
could know, — that he had praised Hill in the text because 
he was the solitary instance of a poet confessing himself in 
error, and had suppressed his name because he believed him 
capable of a second repentance." 28 After this typical 
evasion, Pope assumes the offensive. Has he not good 
reason to complain of the Caveat? It hurts him to be 
represented as wanting the worth to cherish and befriend 
men of merit. "I am sorry," he goes on with an admirable 
assumption of injured innocence, "the author of that re- 
flection knew me no better, and happened to be unknown 
to those who could have better informed him; for I have 
the charity to think he was misled only by his ignorance 
of me, and the benevolence to forgive the worst thing that 
ever in my opinion was said of me, on that supposition." 
Although he appreciates Hill's praise of him as a writer, 
"I only wish you knew as well as I do, how much I prefer 

20 January 18, 1731, WorTcs, 1753, I, 26 f. 

27 Pope to Hill, January 26, 1731. Col. of 1751. 

28 Elwin and Courthope's Pope, X, 9, note 3. 



hill's eelations with pope 213 

qualities of the heart to those of the head. I vow to God, 
I never thought any great matters of my poetical capacity ; 
I only thought it a little better, comparatively, than that of 
some very mean writers, who are too proud. But I do 
know certainly, my moral life is superior to that of most of 
the wits of these days. This is a silly letter, but it will 
show you my mind honestly." 

Hill 's reply — a letter better known and more commended 
than anything else he ever wrote- 9 — showed him more con- 
vinced of the truth of the first part of this last statement 
than of the second: 

" Your answer regarding no part of mine but the conclusion, 
you must pardon my compliment to the close of yours, in return ; 
if I agree with you that your letter is weaker than one would 
have expected. You assure me that I did not know you so well 
as I might, had I happened to be known to others, who could 
have instructed my ignorance; and I begin to find, indeed, that 
I was less acquainted with you than I imagined. But your last 
letter has enlightened me, and I can never be in danger of mis- 
taking you for the future. 

" Your enemies have often told me that your spleen was at 
least as distinguishable as your genius; and it will be kinder, 
I think, to believe them than impute to rudeness or ill manners 
the return you were pleased to make for the civility, with which 
I addressed you. I will, therefore, suppose you to have been 
peevish or in pain, while you were writing me this letter; and upon 
that supposition sball endeavor to undeceive you. If I did not 
love you as a good man, while I esteem you as a good writer, I 
should read you without reflection. And it were doing too much 
honor to your friends, and too little to my own discernment, to go 
to them for a character of your mind, which I was able enough to 
extract from your writings. 

29 January 28, 1731 (Col. of 1751). "Hill is always considered to 
have got a victory over Pope in this excellent letter." (Elwin and 
Courthope's Pope, X, 11, n. 1). The remonstrance is "both gentle- 
manly and reasonable" (G. C. Macaulay: Thomson, 18). 



214 AARON HILL 

" But to imitate your love of truth, with the frankness you 
have taught me, I wish the great qualities of your heart were as 
strong in you as the good ones. You would then have been 
above that emotion and bitterness, wherewith you remember 
things which want weight to deserve your anguish. 

" Since you were not the writer of the notes to the Dunciad, 
it would be impertinent to trouble you with the complaint I 
intended. I will only observe, that the author was in the right 
to believe me capable of a second repentance; but I hope I was 
incapable of that second sin, which should have been previous 
to his supposition. If the initial letters ' A. H.' were not meant 
to stand for my name, yet they were everywhere read so, as you 
might have seen in Mist's Journal and other public papers; and 
I had shown Mr. Pope an example how reasonable I thought it 
to clear a mistake, publicly, which had been publicly propagated. 
One note, among so many, would have done me this justice; and 
the generosity of such a proceeding could have left no room for 
that offensive ' sneakingly,' which, though perhaps too harsh a 
word, was the properest a man would choose, who was satirizing 
an approbation that he had never observed warm enough to declare 
itself to the world, but in defence of the great or the popular. 

" Again, if the author of the notes knew that ' A. H.' related 
not to me, what reason had he to allude to that character as 
mine, by observing that I had published pieces bordering upon 
bombast — a circumstance so independent of any other purpose 
of the note, that I should forget to whom I am writing, if I 
thought it wanted explanation. 

" As to your oblique panegyric, I am not under so blind an 
attachment to the Goddess I was devoted to in the Dunciad, but 
that I knew it was a commendation, though a dirtier one than 
I wished for; who am neither fond of some of the company in 
which I was listed, the nobler reward for which I was to become 
a diver, the allegoric muddiness in which I was to try my skill, 
nor the institutor of the games you were so kind to allow me a 
share in. Since, however, you could see so clearly that I ought 
to be satisfied with the praise, and forgive the dirt it was mixed 
with, I am sorry, it seemed not as reasonable that you should 



hill's relations with pope 215 

pardon me for returning 1 your compliment, with more and 
opener praise, mixed with less of that dirtiness, which we have, 
both of us, the good taste to complain of. 

" The Caveat, Sir, was mine. It would have been ridiculous 
to suppose you ignorant of it; I cannot think you need be told 
that it meant you no harm; and it had scorned to appear under 
the borrowed name it carries, but that the whimsical turn of the 
preface would have made my own a contradiction. I promise 
you, however, that for the future I will publish nothing without 
my name that concerns you, or your writings. I have now 
almost finished an Essay on Propriety and Impropriety, in 
Design, Thought, and Expression, illustrated by Examples in 
both Kinds from the Writings of Mr. Pope; and, to convince 
you how much more pleasure it gives me to distinguish your 
lights than your shades, and that I am as willing as I ought to 
be to see and acknowledge my faults, I am ready, with all my 
heart, to let it run thus, if it would otherwise create the least 
pain in you : An Essay on Propriety and Impropriety, etc., 
illustrated by Examples, of the first, from the Writings of 
Mr. Pope, and of the last, from those of the Author. 

" I am sorry to hear you say you never thought any great 
matters of your poetry. It is, in my opinion, the characteristic 
you are to hope your distinction from. To be honest is the duty 
of every plain man ! Nor, since the soul of poetry is sentiment, 
can a great poet want morality. But your honesty you possess 
in common with a million who will never be remembered ; whereas 
your poetry is a peculiar, that will make it impossible you should 
be forgotten. If you had not been in the spleen when you wrote 
me this letter, I persuade myself you would not, immediately 
after censuring the pride of writers, have asserted that you 
certainly know your moral life above that of most of the wits 
of these days; at any other time, you would have remembered 
that humility is a moral virtue. It was a bold declaration; and 
the certainty with which you know it stands in need of a better 
acquaintance, than you seem to have had with the tribe; since 
you tell me, in the same letter, that many of their names were 
unknown to you. 



216 AAKON HILL 

" Neither would it appear to your own reason, at a cooler 
juncture, overconsistent with the morality you are so sure of, to 
scatter the letters of the whole alphabet annexed at random to 
characters of a light and ridiculous cast, confusedly, with intent 
to provoke jealous writers into resentment, that you might take 
occasion, from that resentment, to expose and depreciate their 
characters. . . . Upon the whole, Sir, I find I am so sincerely 
your friend that it is not in your power to make me your enemy ; 
else, that unnecessary air of neglect and superiority, which is so 
remarkable in the turn of your letter, would have nettled me to 
the quick; and I must triumph, in my turn, at the strength of 
my own heart, who can, after it, still find and profess myself, 
most affectionately and sincerely, your humble servant." 

The "manliness and spirit" 30 of this letter is in striking 
contrast to the evasiveness of Pope's. Pope's answer 31 is 
humble — a proof that he recognized his adversary's ad- 
vantage — but it is not frank; in Dr. Johnson's words, "he 
was reduced to sneak and shuffle, sometimes to deny, and 
sometimes to apologize ; he first endeavors to wound, and is 
then afraid to own that he meant a blow." 3 - He begins by 
proposing mutual forgiveness : he has been guilty of weak- 
ness; Hill, of too much warmth. If the letter was silly, 
so much the more evident was his trust in Hill's good 
feeling towards him. He meant to show no incivility or 
neglect, but merely a frank plainness. Towards the other 
writers who attacked him, "God knows, I never felt any 
emotions but what bad writers raise in all men, those gentle 
ones of laughter or pity ; that I was so open, concerned, and 
serious with respect to you only, is sure a proof of regard, 
not neglect. For in truth, nothing ever vexed me till I saw 
your epigram against Dr. S. and me come out in their 
papers ; and this indeed did vex me, to see one swan among 

so Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, V, 225. 
si February 5, 1731. Col. of 1751. 
32 Lives, ed. G. B. Hill, III, 151. 



hill's relations with pope 217 

the geese. That the letters 'A. H' were applied to you in 
the papers I did not know (for I seldom read them). I 
heard it only from Mr. Savage, as from yourself, and sent 
my assurances to the contrary. But I don't see how the 
annotator on the D--- could have rectified that mistake 
publicly, without particularizing your name, in a book 
where I thought it too good to be inserted. No doubt he 
has applied that passage in the D - - - to you, by the story 
he tells; but his mention of bombast only in some of your 
juvenile pieces, I think, was meant to show, that passage 
hinted only at that allegorical muddiness, and not at any 
worse sort of dirt with which some other writers were 
charged. I hate to say what will not be believed : yet when 
I told you, many asked me to whom that oblique praise 
was meant, I did not tell you I answered, it was you. Has 
it escaped your observation that the name is a syllable too 
long? Or (if you will have it a Christian name) is there 
any other in the whole book? Is there no author of two 
syllables whom it will better fit, not only as getting out 
of the allegorical muddiness, but as having been dipt in the 
dirt of party-writing, and recovering from it betimes? I 
know such a man, who would take it for a compliment, and 
so would his patrons too. But I ask you not to believe this, 
except you are vastly inclined to it. [Hill would have 
been vastly credulous if he had done so.] I will come 
closer to the point: would you have the note left out? it 
shall. Would you have it expressly said, you were not 
meant? it shall, if I have any influence on the editors. I 
believe the note was meant only as a gentle rebuke and 
friendly ; I understood very well the Caveat on your part 
to be the same, and complained (you see) of nothing but 
two or three lines reflecting on my behaviour and temper 
to other writers; because I knew they were not true, and 
you could not know they were." If Hill chooses, he may 



218 AARON HILL 

confine his examples of impropriety to Pope's works; and 
he will try to amend them. "It is my morality only that 
must make me beloved or happy. . . . Therefore it is, Sir, 
that I much more resent any attempt against my moral 
character (which I know to be unjust) than any to lessen 
my poetical one (which, for all I know, may be very just)." 
With the letter came a peace-offering of the Odyssey for 
Miss Urania. 

Pope's equivocation is indeed remarkable, as Mr. Court- 
hope says, — as remarkable as the "daring with which he 
laid himself open to a crushing reply." 33 His defense 
consists of two mutually destructive parts: he meant Hill 
a compliment, and he did not mean Hill at all. Hill was 
certainly not too stupid to perceive the opening offered by 
Pope's shuffling evasions, but he generously declared him- 
self quite willing to forget "the appearance of everything 
that has been distasteful to either." The objectionable 
lines in the Caveat were added as an afterthought by way 
of introducing the allegory less abruptly; "but," he adds, 
"I confess it was unreasonable in me to cover your praise, 
which I delighted in, under the veil of an allegory, and 
explain my censure too openly, in which I could take no 
pleasure." As to the offer to omit the Dunciad note, it is 
kind; "but t am satisfied. It is over, and deserves no 
more of your application." Then in the last paragraph 
he makes casual mention of that Essay on Propriety, 
promising to send it to Pope before publication. He also 
promises the manuscript of a new poem, and requests that 
Pope star any passage concerning himself of which he does 
not approve. 34 

The new poem was Advice to the Poets. — To ivhich is pre- 
fixed an Epistle dedicatory to the few great spirits of Great 

33 Pope, X, 17, n. 1. 

34 February 10, 1731. Col. of 1751 (there wrongly dated 1731- 
1732). 



hill's relations with pope 219 

Britain. These few great spirits are the patrons capable 
of distinguishing between poets and pretenders, and of 
encouraging the former. Hill calls upon Pope to hear the 
Muse he invokes : 

" she sounds th'inspired decree, 
Thou great archangel of wit's heaven, for thee." 

Half-souled poets may fall foul of one another : 

" But let no muse pre-eminent as thine, 
Of voice melodious and of force divine, 
Stung, by wit's wasps, all rights of rank forego, 
And turn to snarl and bite at every foe." 

A few lines refer to the late quarrel : 

" Should even hot rashness erring javelins throw, 
And strike our friendly breast, supposed a foe, 
How nobler still to undeceive than blame! 
And chasten insult with the blush of shame." 

The rest of the poem is chiefly concerned with such advice 
to poets as to praise merit, strike at oppression, kindle 
patriotism, and the like. In conclusion, the poet, declar- 
ing his preference for obscurity, describes himself as hug- 
ging his rest, — an amusing picture of Hill, who could do 
everything but rest. 

Pope evidently starred a few lines, and said of the poem, 
"The satisfaction it gave me is proportioned to the regard 
I have for you," — one of his eminently safe statements. 35 
He again suggests leaving out the Dunciad note, — that is, 
he thinks the "two lords and one gentleman, who really 
took and printed that edition, ' ' can be persuaded. 36 In his 
next letter, he expresses himself as pleased with the dedica- 
tion ' ' equally with the poem, ' ' — safe again ! ' ' Our hearts 
beat just together, in regard to men of power and quality ; 

35 February 15, 1731. Col of 1751. 

ss For comment on this see Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, general 
introduction to the Dunciad, vol. IV. 



220 AARON HILL 

but a series of infirmities, for my whole life has been but 
one long disease, had hindered me from following your 
advice." 37 

The Dunciad quarrel may now be regarded as practically 
closed, and the victory awarded to Hill. He had inspired 
his antagonist with respect by pushing him to the wall, and 
with gratitude by forbearing to take an ungenerous ad- 
vantage. It must have appeared to Pope better to be a 
little bored by flattery, better even to return the flattery 
from time to time, than run the risk of any public exposure 
as cutting as this private one had been. Whatever were 
his secret feelings after this, however tiresome or ridiculous 
he may have thought Hill's works, he avoided open provo- 
cation. Hill understood the value of Pope's protestations of 
sincerity, and Pope knew that he did. Mr. Courthope likes 
to think of all the subsequent civilities of Pope — his cor- 
respondence with Hill, his efforts in behalf of Hill's plays, 
his reading of Hill's MSS. — as one long penance per- 
formed in the consciousness of having injured a worthy 
man — who knew how to retaliate. 38 Indeed, it could 
scarcely be called anything else, when it involved the read- 
ing and re-reading even to the sixth time of a Caesar. 
But there was only one Caesar, and there were compensa- 
tions in Hill's friendship: he had attractive personal quali- 
ties — for that there is ample testimony; 39 and he might 
prove useful as an ally. 

The rather brisk correspondence for the rest of the year 
1731 — there are thirteen letters, three only of them Hill's, 
from September to November 13 alone — is chiefly concerned 

37 March 14, 1731. Col. of 1751. 

as Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, III, 386, n. 1. 

sa Daviea (Life of Garrick, 1, eh. 13) describes him in later life: 
"his figure, air, and manner were gracefully venerable; with a warm 
and benevolent mind, he had the delicate address and polite manners 
of the complete gentleman." 



hill's relations with pope 221 

with Athelwold, and is devoid of any special interest. 
"With "great timorousness " Pope suggested a few changes 
in the play, indicated in the margin with his black pencil, — 
"half afraid to be legible." 40 And that the fear was 
justified is evident from the very polite and elaborate ex- 
planation Hill gave of his reasons for not adopting some 
of the emendations; 41 he was not offended, but he took 
criticism with a deadly seriousness that must have been 
extremely disconcerting. The death of Hill's wife on June 
25, 1731, brought a letter of condolence from Pope 42 with 
a more sincere note than usual; Hill appreciated it: "It 
will never be in my power to forget how compassionate 
you have been, in calling and sending so often. It is plain, 
you have none of the fashionable want of feeling for the 
calamities of others." He asks Pope's advice about a 
monument to be placed in the Abbey cloisters; "the low 
and unmeaning lumpishness" in the vulgar style of monu- 
ments disgusts him, and he encloses a rough sketch of an 
idea of his own. 43 Pope apparently managed to avoid giv- 
ing advice on this delicate matter. Two of his letters of 
this month 44 refer to his mother's illness and contain 
invitations to visit Twickenham: "I could wish, if Miss 
Hill, under a father's authority, might venture, she saw 
me before I am quite decayed, I mean all of me that is yet 
half flourishing — my garden." This visit finally took 
place about October 20. 45 Once he mentions the quarrel: 46 

40 Pope to Hill, June 5, 1731. Col. of 1751 (misprinted "Jan."). 

4i October 29, 1731, WorTcs, 1753, I, 92. These corrections derive a 
certain importance from the fact that the handwriting forms part of 
the evidence used in deciding whether Pope was the author of the 
emendations in Thomson's Seasons. See Notes and Queries, 8th S., 
XII, 389, article by D. C. Tovey. 

42 September 1, 1731. Col. of 1751. 

43 September 17, 1731, WorTcs, I, 65 f. 

44 September 3 and 25, 1731. Col. of 1751. 
4- Hill to Wilks, October 23, WorTcs, I, 88. 

•46 Pope to Hill, October 9, 1731, Col. of 1751. 



222 AARON HILL 

"I have been as ill as when I writ you that peevish image 
of my soul, a letter some time since, which had the good 
effect of making us know one another," — and which was 
now, he might have added, forcing him to make interest 
for Hill's play with Lady Suffolk and even the king and 
queen. 47 

The failure of Athelwold closed that chapter in their 
correspondence, and the publication (December, 1731) of 
Pope's Epistle to the Earl of Burlington — Of False Taste, 
a title adopted in the third edition on Hill's suggestion, 48 
opened a new but very brief one, closed after three or four 
letters. In the storm of criticism aroused by the popular 
identification of "Timon" in the Epistle with the Duke of 
Chandos, Pope turned to Hill for help. ' ' If there be truth 
in the world," he writes, 49 "I declare to you, I never 
imagined the least application of what I said of Timon 
could be made to the Duke of Chandos, (than whom there is 
scarce a more blameless, worthy, and generous, beneficent 
character among all our nobility. ... I am certain, if you 
calmly read every particular of that description, you will 
find almost all of them point blank the reverse of that 
person's villa." 50 Noting how awkward it is to fight in 
defense of one's own work, he adds insinuatingly, "It 
would have been a pleasure to me, to have found some 
friend saying a word in my justification, against a most 
malicious falsehood. . . . Believe me, I would rather never 
have written a verse in my life, than that any of them 
should trouble a truly good man. It was once my case 
before, but happily reconciled ; and among generous minds 
nothing so endears friends as the having offended one 

47 See letters from Pope to Hill, October 9 and 29, Col. of 1751. 

48 Pope to Hill, February 5, 1732, Col. of 1751. 

49 December 22, 1731, Col. of 1751. 

so The truth of this statement is discussed in the introduction to 
Moral Essay IV. Elwin and Courthope 's Pope. 



hill's relations with pope 223 

another. I lament the malice of the age, that studies to 
see its own likeness in everything; I lament the dulness of 
it, that cannot see an excellence; the first is my unhappi- 
ness, the second yours. I look upon the fate of your piece 
like that of a great treasure, which is buried as soon as 
brought to light ; but is sure to be dug up the next age, and 
enrich posterity." He refers in closing to his fear of 
losing his mother — dearer to him than anything, except his 
morals. 

It seemed impossible for Pope to avoid talking to Hill 
of his morals. And it annoyed Hill. After Pope's death, 
he wrote to Richardson: 51 "One of his worst mistakes was 
that unnecessary noise he used to make in boast of his 
morality. It seemed to me almost a call upon suspicion, 
that a man should rate the duties of plain honesty as if 
they had been qualities extraordinary. And, in fact, I saw 
on some occasions that he found those duties too severe for 
practise; and but prized himself upon the character, in 
proportion to the pains it cost him to support it." This 
may have been one of the occasions Hill had in mind; and 
perhaps the flattery in the letter was too obviously due to 
interested motives. At all events, instead of rushing into 
print in defense of his friend, Hill confesses to having fallen 
"at the first and second reading . . . into the general con- 
struction that had been put upon the character of Timon." 
Then, however, he noticed those points of difference already 
set forth in the newspapers. No doubt, "that unguarded 
absence of caution, which is a mark by which one may be 
sure a purpose was either angry or generous" prevented 
Pope's realizing the occasion for slander in the name of 
Timon, in view of the Duke of Chandos's recent reverse of 
fortune. He points out a few details that are not "point 

51 September 10 ; 1744, in Kichardson's Correspondence, ed. Mrs. 
Barbauld, I, 106. 



224 AARON HILL 

blank the reverse" of the Duke's villa; "as to the many 
unresembling particulars, they are drowned, like the mis- 
taken predictions of eleven months in an almanac, where 
the events of the twelfth come by chance to be accom- 
plished." The next paragraph must have annoyed Pope: 
"But that it is a rule with me to consider the letters I re- 
ceive from my friends as their own property still, though 
trusted to my possession, I could more effectually convince 
him [the Duke] how he ought to think, by letting him see 
how you think on this subject, in an easy, undesigning, 
natural indignation, expressed in a private letter, than by 
all the most labored endeavors of yourself or your friends 
in public. ' ' 52 There is a suggestion of quiet malice here. 

When Pope wrote again, 53 it was merely to tell Hill how 
strongly the Duke had assured him of the ' ' rectitude of his 
opinion" and his resentment at the report, — an interpreta- 
tion of the Duke's attitude much more favorable to himself 
than the Duke's letter warranted. 54 And then there is a 
break in the correspondence of nearly a year. Perhaps it 
is sufficiently accounted for by Hill's failure to take up 
arms for Pope in this exigency. Or it is barely possible 
that he may have connected Pope with a fling at Athelwold 
in the Grub Street Journal of this month (no. 112) : "A 
play may be called theatrical that is written by any person 
belonging to the theatre, or that is given to the theatre. 
... Of this sort was Athelwold, which, as I am informed, 
was given to the house; but I don't find that its being 
theatrical could prevent its dying a natural death soon 
after its birth." Of course Pope's connection with the 
paper was not avowed, and may not have been suspected 

52 Hill to Pope, December 23, 1731, Works, I, 106 f. 

53 February 5, 1732 (misdated 1730-1 in the Col. of 1751). 

s* Johnson (Lives, ed. G. B. Hill, III, 153) says that Pope's letter 
to the Duke "was answered with great magnanimity, as by a man 
who accepted his excuse without believing his professions." 



hill's relations with pope 225 

by Hill at this time. Or without seeking any more definite 
explanation, we may assume mere incompatibility of 
temper. Their intercourse was probably ruffled more than 
once by little encounters like the following, related by Hill 
to Richardson some years later: 55 

"There was a verse which Mr. Pope . . . was very fond 
of : ' For fools admire, but men of sense approve. ' I used to 
tell him I abhorred the sentiment, both from its arrogance, 
and want of truth in nature. We had many contests of 
this kind ; but there are arguers whom heaven, as this same 
gentleman expresses it extremely well, 'has cursed with 
hearts unknowing how to yield.' And so our battles were 
usually drawn ones. ... In the last debate we had upon 
this subject, I desired to know if he was still . . . convinced 
Longinus's remark on the sublime was right? — That the 
most certain way of knowing it is from the power in some 
idea touched enthusiastically to move the blood and spirits 
into transport by a thrilling kind of joy. ... He owned 
it was the strongest definition of the true sublime that 
could be possibly imagined; but was sure only men of 
genius could conceive it. Whereupon I asked him whether 
joy and transport and enthusiasm and a thrill of blood 
could possibly consist with want of admiration? He per- 
ceived the use I made of his concession, and said nothing, 
till I added this new question : Whether only fools admire, 
if only men of genius are susceptible of a sublimity of 
admiration? In some perplexity to find a better answer, 
he was forced to satisfy himself with saying that Longi- 
nus's remark was truth; but like certain truths of more 
importance, it required assent from faith, without the evi- 
dence of demonstration." Hill then said he had seen it 
demonstrated, at a play-reading at Lord Tyrconnel's: in 
the course of a discussion about the difficulty of delicate 

r,s October 13, 1746. Eichardson's Correspondence, I, 112. 
16 



226 AAKON HILL 

and manly praise, a gentleman of rank and genius had 
repeated Pope's lines to Oxford, declaring that he never 
could read them without rapture, and looking his rapture 
as he spoke. Pope, of course, asked who the gentleman 
was, and Hill named the Speaker of the House of Commons. 
Pope's manner of receiving the compliment — "with a 
strained supercilious smile," and the comment, "the Speaker 
is a man remarkable for heat and passion, and such trans- 
ports will be common to such tempers," — disgusted Hill 
to such an extent that he never afterwards recovered the 
opinion he then lost of "that (too loud) pretension to high 
morals" Pope liked to make on all occasions. Such con- 
temptuous disregard of praise was in too marked contrast 
to his earlier sedulous seeking after it. 56 

It was Pope who renewed their intercourse by sending 
Hill his Epistle of the Use of Riches. Hill, glad to know 
that Pope has "good-nature enough to remember one who 
must have seemed not to have deserved the distinction," 
refers to other favors from Pope, not acknowledged sooner 
because he has a plan of doing it shortly. 57 He may have 
had in mind a defense of Pope such as he intended for the 
Weekly Miscellany, though it was not printed there, and 
perhaps never sent; it is in the Forster MS. and undated. 
After quoting from Pope's "late imitation of Horace," 58 
he declares its beauties ought to "exempt him from being 
accountable, like other men, for the transports of spleen 
or anguish." Hill's next letter, 50 four months later, dis- 

56 The play-reading referred to was that of Athelwold at Lord 
Tyrconnel 's>, December, 1731, when Speaker Onslow was present and 
spoke of Pope with esteem. See Hill's letter to Onslow, December 
16, Worlcs, I, 344. The conversation with Pope may not have taken 
place until some months later. 

57 Hill to Pope, January 16, 1733, Worts, I, 126. 
53 Published February 14, 1733. 

59 May 16, 1733, Worlcs, I ) 128. 



hill's relations with pope 227 

poses of the necessary business of flattery briefly, by thank- 
ing Pope for the Imitation and enclosing in return some 
lines he had sent from Newcastle five or six years before, 
brushed up for this occasion ; 60 his real object is an inquiry 
about the stage patent. Pope is delighted at the partiality 
Hill displays for him as man and poet; as to the verses, it 
would be wronging sense and poetry not to say they were 
fine ones, and "such as I could not forget, having once 
seen them." 61 The latter statement might be made of 
much of Hill's poetry. 

During the rest of the year, they continued on a basis of 
courteous invitation and polite inquiry, with occasional 
excursions into the realms of gardening and the stage. 62 
Pope admired a little obelisk of Jersey shells in Hill's 
garden — his house was in Petty France, overlooking St. 
James's Park, where Pope sometimes came to wait upon 
him, — and Hill promptly sent a package of the shells to 
embellish the marine temple at Twickenham. For the 
obelisk Pope designs to build there, Hill offers shells, ma- 
terial, and workmanship. Pope thanks him for the pretty 
shells, the more agreeable letter, and the most excellent 
translation of Voltaire ; and after a little talk of Dennis 's 
distress and Thomson's new poem, the letters cease. 

To account for the silence of nearly five years that 
follows, it has been conjectured that Hill wore out Pope's 
patience with importunate requests for criticism upon his 

60 Perhaps the lines to Pope, Works, III, 9. 

si May 22, 1733, Col. of 1751. 

62 See letters of Hill to Pope, September 20 {Works, II, 178), 
November 10 (I, 343), November 7 (I, 177); and of Pope to Hill, 
November 13 {Col. of 1751). Lady Walpole also admired the rock- 
work in Hill's garden, and inquired after the compositions he used; 
he tells her, and also describes for her a Temple of Happiness, with 
grottos of Power, Eiches, and so on, and innumerable statues. 
(Hill to Lady Walpole, May and June, 1734, Works, I, 190 and 199). 



228 AARON HILL 

work. 63 The correspondence so far discussed does not in- 
dicate this; one might read Athelwold and Zara several 
times without distress. If Hill solicited assistance in 
securing audiences, Pope in his turn sought defense against 
public attack. A more likely explanation is to be found 
in a lively controversy that took place between the 
Prompter and the Grub Street Journal. 

Hill started the Prompter in November, 1734, about a 
year after the last letter quoted. A few months later, dis- 
cussion of Matthew Tindal, the famous freethinker, who 
had died in 1733, began to occupy the newspapers. 64 
Eustace BudgelPs paper, the Bee, published among other 
things his will — the will Budgell is accused of forging — 
and a prayer. Over this philosopher's prayer, the Grub 
Street Journal, 65 as the champion of Christianity, began to 
wage a fierce war with the Bee, and for months the battle 
raged. In the 98th number of October 17, the Prompter 
(probably Popple, as the signature is "P") rashly entered 
the lists by remarking upon the meanness of mind of those 
who take every occasion to manifest a dislike ; the Bee, for 
instance, has incurred the hostility of a set of obscure 
writers by its defense of a prayer. 66 And it is a very good 
prayer, too, — a decent and modest declaration, justified as 
philosophy or reason, with which faith and revelation have 
nothing to do. Grub Street turned with zest to its new 
antagonist, and printed a dialogue between Prompterus 
and Puff eras Secundus (the Bee) : 67 

63 Elwin and Courthope's Pope, X, 53, n. 1. 

64 No. 265 of the Grub Street Journal, January 21, 1735, printed an 
attack upon his character. 

65 No. 296, August 28, 1735. 

66 Hill was on good terms with the Bee: in February 1733, the Bee 
printed Hill's verses on DTyden's monument; in May 1733, a scene 
from Zara; and in June 1733, the Address from the Statues of Stowe 
to Lord Cobham. 

67 No. 304, October 23. 



hill's relations with pope 229 

Prompt. I've advertised and puffed this thing of mine 
In vain, though got to No. 99. 

Puff. Write 'gainst the Grubs. 'Twill give it a new motion, 

If you'll defend my prayer's profound devotion. 

Prompt. 'Twould fill, to answer all their damned reflections, 
Three Prompters. 

Puff. Snap at two or three objections. 

This still has been my way. In puffs I'll bully, 
And tell the world that you have answered fully. 

The Prompter™ retaliated by quoting another prayer, with 
the supposed critical emendations of Bavius of Grub 
Street. 69 The only drawback to the effectiveness of the 
retort is that the emendations, meant to ridicule Grub 
Street criticism, strike one as rather better than the prayer. 
Grub Street, 70 in a counter attack of more serious nature, 
accused the author of the Prompter of deism and infidelity. 
Puffs of the Prompter in recent numbers of the Daily 
Journal inspire an epigram : 

" These twins of different name, 
Prompter and Daily Journal, are the same." 

At this point, "B," probably Hill himself, takes a 
hand: 71 his remarks on intemperance and scurrility in 
argument are directed against Grub Street's attempt to re- 
strain free thinking; his epigrams are levelled not only 
against the paper, but against Pope. The first merely 

6S Nos. 101 and 102. 

es The headquarters of the Knights of the Bathos were at the Sign 
of the Pegasus in Grub Street; the pretended secretary of the society 
was called Bavius. A man named Kussel, a non-juring clergyman, 
ran the paper, but Pope was the power behind the management, from 
1730 to about 1735. See in Thomas E. Lounsbury's Text of Shakes- 
peare (1906), ch. XIX on the Grub Street Journal. 

™ No. 307. 

7i No. 107, November 18. 



230 AARON HILL 

notes how sad it would be, if a paper, called Grub Street in 
jest, should really live up to the name. The second hits 
at Pope's well-known use of the journal for attacks and 
defenses in his own behalf : 

"P--e, who oft overflows both with wit and with spleen, 
Felt the want of a dung-cart to keep himself clean; 
So he furnished a priest with a carriage, ding-dong, 
And made him his drayman to drive it along." 

Henceforth the Prompter always characterizes the Grub 
Street Journal as Pope's drayman. In no. 308, Grub Street 
varies the attack by scornful comments on the false quanti- 
ties in a Latin epigram published in no. 105 of the 
Prompter. And then the latter prints an adverse criticism 
of Pope as a satirist, ostensibly by a correspondent. 72 
Back came an epigram: 73 

"In quiet let TindaPs adopted inherit; 
Complain of great men and his own slighted merit; 
Let him rail, let him rail, be eternally railing 
At priests and the Christian religion's prevailing. 
Let the Prompter, his second, too take up the cudgel, 
And weakly and formally vindicate Budgell; 
If the Gospel e'er suffer from two such infectors, 
The world must be crazy, or Beech-Oil projectors." 

And so it went on. "P" and the reverend drayman 
quarrel over faith, reason, Socrates, Christianity, and a 
state religion; make elaborate reductio-ad-absurdums of 
each other's arguments; and comment acrimoniously on 
the philosophic temper exhibited in each other's epigrams. 
Before the end of December, they are disputing over the 
proper use of a Latin word, and calling each other snails 
and toads. 74 As a welcome variation, there is some ridicule 

"Nos. 108 and 111. 

73 No. 310. 

74 Grub Street Journal, nos. 311-315. Prompter, nos. 112 and 119. 



hill's relations with pope 231 

of the "mystical verbology " of the Prompter's, English 
style: what can possibly be meant by an "actor general, 
plastic, and unspecificate ? " 75 The reader may well echo 
the question. The death of the drayman, in a mock battle 
with Horace, Livy, and others, 76 is reported in no. 128 ; but 
for all that, his ghost continues to hover over his cart. 
More trouble, enlivened by charges of plagiarism, arose 
over Popple's play, The Double Deceit, and The Man of 
Taste, supported by the Grub Street Journal. 

An interesting fact connected with this unedifying dis- 
pute is that both Pope and Hill disclaimed any share in 
it, — a denial that was certainly disingenuous in one case, 
and probably so in the other. Pope denied 77 that he had 
ever had "the least hand, direction, or supervisal, or the 
least knowledge" of the author of the paper; yet it has 
been proved beyond all doubt that he was a contributor. 
And Hill wrote to Richardson 78 about "the angry and 
unjust personalities" appearing against him in the Grub 
Street Journal, misrepresenting him as the defender of the 
prayer and the assailant of The Man of Taste; "as you 
know," he adds, "that I have nothing to answer for on 
either of these two heads, having never seen any of those 
papers, till I read them in the published Prompters, I 
should take it as a favor, if you would immediately find 
means to undeceive the gentlemen concerned." He de- 
clares that he knows neither the author nor the publisher 
of the paper, and does not wish to defend himself publicly, 
because he hates personal bickerings among writers. It 
seems incredible that Hill did not connect Pope with the 

75 Grub Street Journal, no. 320, February 12, 1736. 

76 The battle is described in no. 123. The reverend militant who 
succeeded Eussel was Miller, another of Pope's partisans. 

77 In a note on line 378 1 of his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. See 
Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, III, 270, n. 2. 

78 March 6, 1735-6, Forster MS. 



232 AARON HILL 

attacks, when his collaborator Popple did. In spite of all 
denials, it remains true that two papers, one connected with 
Hill, the other with Pope, were for months calling each 
other names in a most offensive manner, over the deceased 
Dr. Tindal's very uninteresting prayer. It was not the 
way to cement friendly relations between them. Pope, it 
is true, inquired kindly after Hill through Thomson, but 
Hill's acknowledgment shows resentment: he is glad Pope 
remembers him, but adds, "I am made sure, by some 
reasons I have to be convinced we think differently of each 
other, that my esteem for him is the effect of his excel- 
lencies, because it could have no ground to grow in, if it 
were the return of partiality." 79 When the Memoirs of 
the Society of Grub Street was published in 1737, the 
preface contained a condescending reference to "our late 
unsuccessful brother the Prompter," which could scarcely 
have been palatable to Hill. And so at last the whole affair 
ended, having amounted to nothing but bickering, stupid 
at best, indecent at worst. 

It must have been to Pope something of a shock to receive 
in May, 1738, 80 an eighteen-page letter from his former 
correspondent, once more threatening the publication of 
the Essay on Propriety, — perhaps to even up things after 
the Grub Street episode. The sight of some of Pope's 
"vegetable children" in Lady Peterborough's garden had 
reminded Hill of Pope, and the prospect of leisure re- 
minded him of the essay. 81 As he finds, in looking over it, 
that many examples reflect upon Pope, he wishes to submit 

79 Hill to Thomson, May 20, 1736, Works, I, 236. 

so WorJcs, I, 248 f . 

si ' ' After having vainly aspired to be active to some good ends and 
good offices, which I am not allowed the prosperity that was necessary 
for effectually reaching, all I now find remaining as a task for my 
future solitude is to learn to be lazy without spleen, and submit to 
be useless with temper." 



hill's relations with pope 233 

them to his final decision. Part of the essay deals with 
propriety of expression — too often violated. For instance, 
just as "shagged" in one of Pope's lines could have no 
other word substituted for it without loss, so ' ' scour ' ' in the 
lines on Camilla is unfortunate — it checks the speed of the 
idea he has been trying to convey, and suggests pressure, 
attrition, adherence. Other examples follow, though of 
course improprieties in Pope are few indeed ! He then 
turns to the Bathos. He scarcely expects to trouble the 
public with his reflections on that, but urges Pope to assure 
himself of the justice of his censures; for if they are un- 
just, the disgrace attached to the victim will be transferred 
to the censurer. The criticism of Theobald is one he thinks 
unwarranted in some respects. He closes with the ac- 
knowledgment that he could go on in this way much longer, 
though his letter is already of an "unmerciful length," 
— as it was. 

Pope's reply, with its protestations of sincerity and its 
attempt to shift responsibility, is almost an echo of earlier 
letters. 82 As to Theobald, he never supposed the play con- 
taining the lines in question was Theobald's; Theobald him- 
self said it was Shakespeare's; and besides, it was Dr. 
Arbuthnot who collected many of the passages censured in 
the Bathos. If Mr. Hill only knew Pope the man! The 
trouble was that Mr. Hill did. ' ' You can hardly conceive 
how little either pique or contempt I bear to any creature, 
unless for immoral or dirty actions." Criticize me as a 
poet to your heart's content, but spare my character as an 
honest man. 

The "civil reproach" Hill detected in the letter made 
him question whether Pope was not displeased at his 
freedom; rather than displease him, he will burn the 

82 June 9, 1738. Col. of 1751. 



234 AARON HILL 

essay. 83 To prove the general neglect of propriety, he 
needed examples from the living chief of poets: to select 
from dead authors only seemed a meanness, and to cite 
from his own, "though full enough, God knows, of ab- 
surdities," would have looked assuming and silly. He is 
glad to hear that Arbuthnot made the collection; yet it 
was published under Pope's name, and "whatever a man 
sets his hand to, he ought first to examine the truth of." 
With a provoking air of friendly sincerity, he goes on : "I 
am charmed while I hear you disclaim that propensity to 
pique and contempt, which, to speak with the soul of a 
friend, seems to me the only spot on your character. We 
are all of us, in some lights or other, the dupes of our 
natural frailties ; and when Mr. Pope, with the warmth that 
becomes a great mind, tells me how far he is from despising 
defects in men's genius — never feeling any contempt but 
for the dirt of their actions, — I am sure he says nothing 
but what he firmly believes to be true. ... In the mean- 
time, 'tis pity that a thinker so humane and benevolent 
should indulge an ambiguity in the turn of his expression, 
that scatters gall which his heart never licensed." He 
admits his own too great quickness in apprehending indig- 
nities, and proclaims the desirability of free reproof between 
friends. Renewed assurances 84 of Pope's good-will con- 
vinced him that they must have been born to be lovers; 
"we are so often and so unaccountably mistaking one 
another into reserves and resentments. ... In plain truth 
and English, I always did and I still do most affectionately 
esteem you, both as man and as poet. And if now and 

ss Hill to Pope, June 17, 1738, Works, II, 398. Hill actually did 
burn the essay, in 1739, during a "long and melancholy illness," 
sacrificing it " to a suspicion which I apprehended I had grounds for, 
that my design . . . would disoblige where it intended service." 
Works, II, 217. 

s* June 20, 1738, Col. of 1751. 



hill's relations with pope 235 

then, for a start, I have been put out of humor with either, 
I would fain have you think it was no less your own fault 
than mine." He suggests that they rest the debate, and 
"either resolve to let fall an unconfiding and cold cor- 
respondence, or much rather agree (if you please) to 
understand one another better for the future." As a proof 
of his respect, he sends the play of Caesar for Pope's 
criticism. 85 

Caesar takes up the greater part of the remaining cor- 
respondence, and makes it intolerably tedious. Boling- 
broke, who came back to England about July of this year 
and stayed at Twickenham, was honored no less than Pope 
with the disquisitions upon Caesar. And they really read 
the play and the essay — their comments prove it. 86 No 
doubt, they had a little quiet fun at Hill's expense, but 
they did not buy it easily. There is a certain satisfaction in 
the thought of Pope and Bolingbroke toiling over the play 
and the letters. When one says the sentiments of the 
tragedy are ' ' noble, beyond the power of words ' ' ; 87 or when 
the other declares he never met with "more striking sen- 
tences"; 88 or when Mr. Pope and his noble friend doubt 
"whether, in some few instances, the utmost effort of 
language has not obscured the beauty and force of 
thought," one lingers thoughtfully over the compliments. 
All three are adepts in flattery — Hill perhaps the greatest. 
References by Hill 89 to the involved state of his affairs 
bring forth regrets from the other two at their inability to 
raise his fortune, but since that is impossible, they beg the 
privilege of reading Caesar once or twice more. 90 

ss June 25, 1738, Col. of 1751. 

se See letter of Pope to Hill, September 12, 1738. Col. of 1751. 

87 Bolingbroke to Hill, July 21, 1738. Works, II, 417. 

ss Pope to Hill, July 21, 1738. Col. of 1751. 

so Hill to Pope, August 29, 1738. Works, I, 295. 

so This was at least the fifth reading, for Hill, about to send back 



236 AARON HILL 

Among the last letters, chiefly on the theatrical situation 
and the conflicting claims of the plays of Mallet, Thomson, 
and Hill, is one that suggests why the correspondence 
presently came to an end. Pope could read and criticize 
Hill's plays and listen to all he had to say about them; he 
could bear with Hill's criticism of himself; but to receive 
from him a nine-page analysis of Thomson's Agamemnon. 
to be communicated to Thomson by word of mouth, must 
have warned him of new and unexpected dangers in the 
correspondence. 91 He promised to carry out the commis- 
sion, 92 but it was not long before the letters ceased. 
Perhaps they had proved too ' ' unconfiding and cold." 
Shortly after, Hill had a serious illness that lasted many 
months and would in any case have cut short his letter- 
writing. 

Through their common friend, Mallet, they exchanged 
from time to time polite assurances of affection 93 — an 
affection on Hill's part merely polite. In the soothing 
atmosphere of Richardson's sympathy, his smouldering 
resentment against Pope at last found vent. Richardson 
opened the way for discussion by some rather ill-natured 
remarks on Pope's abuse of his talent in personal satire. 94 
Charmed by these generous truths, Hill added a few others : 
' ' His genius is not native or inventive ; it is a verbal flexi- 
bility of expressiveness that now and then throws such 
light on his couplets. He can add a door or a window to 
another man's house, but he would build very badly on a 
new plan ... of his own. ... As to his Essay on Man . . . 

the corrected MS., mercifully remembers that Pope has already read 
it four times (Hill to Pope, August 29, 1738. Works, I, 295). 
si November 8, 1738. Works, I, 308. 

92 Pope to Hill, December 8, 1738. 

93 Hill to Mallet, March 17 and August 12, 1742 (MS. quoted in 
Elwin and Courthope's Pope, X, 78). 

94 January 19, 1744. Forster MS. 



hill's relations with pope 237 

you are very kind to his genius, when you consider that 
as a proof of it, when the versification, I am afraid, is his 
whole, and the matter and design my lord Bolingbroke 's. 
And yet, there is always here and there, in whatever he 
writes, something so expressed to bewitch us, that I cannot, 
for my soul, help admiring him. ' ' 95 This unwilling admis- 
sion is worth all the rest. After Pope's death, Hill turned 
prophet: 96 "Mr. Pope, as you with equal keenness and 
propriety express it, is gone out. I told a friend of his, 
who sent me the first news of it, that I was sorry for his 
death, because I doubted whether he would live to recover 
the accident." 

Presently he began to plan the publication of Pope's 
letters — "writ in controversial clashes between him and 
me on three distinct occasions, which, but that he begged 
me not to let the public see, would do him hurt, beyond all 
possible belief of those who took him for a general genius. ' ' 
Richardson told Hill to go ahead, and Hill agreed that 
Pope deserved no delicacy; "neither was I under absolute 
promise; tho' he begged me to conceal his letters, after 
being stung into sense of the gross openings he had left 
in 'em against himself by some not over tender uses I drew 
thence to punish a too negligent vanity." 97 

Quite surprisingly, the famous Essay on Propriety, 
burned in 1739, reappears once more to threaten Pope's 
fame — Hill's memory apparently served him as well as a 
manuscript. The tract will show that Pope knew nothing 
as to plan or thought that merited the name of genius, 
though "in Figure and Expression ... he had Beauties 
equal to the Best. ' ' But to give a resistless demonstration, 
he has taken pains to go through the whole Essay on Man, 

95 Hill to Richardson, 1744. Richardson's Correspondence, I, 108. 
se Hill to Richardson, September 10, 1744, ibid., I, 104. 
97 See letters from Hill to Richardson, July 10 and 21, 1746; and 
from Richardson to Hill, July, 1746. Forster MS. 



238 AARON HILL 

"and without changing any Thought, or medling with his 
general Design or Mode of executing it, only expressed his 
meanings, as he aimed, himself, to have expressed 'em." 
His own description of the Essay after this audacious at- 
tempt is delightfully appropriate: "Shall I, by way of 
curiosity only, send you his so mortified Essay on Man?" 9S 
Richardson was inexpressibly obliged ;" and though, he had 
time to read only six pages, he was amazed at the ' ' obvious- 
ness as well as justness of the corrections. ' ' He passed the 
Essay on to Speaker Onslow, who tactfully observed that 
Hill undervalued his genius by giving anything of his not 
wholly his. 100 

The mortified Essay on Man never saw the light. The 
letters appeared after Hill's death; and though they have 
done no appreciable hurt to Pope's literary fame, they 
have scarcely strengthened his claim to honesty. 

98 Hill to Richardson, July 29, 1746. Forster MSS. 

99 Kichardson to Hill, August 5, 1746. Ibid. 
ioo Kichardson to Hill, November 7, 1748. Ibid. 



CHAPTER VII 



HILL AND EICHAKDSON 



In 1738, Pope had been annoyed by an attack in the 
Gazetteer, then printed by Richardson; and Hill, in the 
letter that closes his correspondence with Pope, attempts to 
absolve Richardson from responsibility: "I did not recol- 
lect, till you told it me, that the Gazetteers were printed 
by Mr. Richardson. I am acquainted with none of their 
authors; . . . and, as to Mr. Richardson himself (among 
whose virtues I place it that he knows and considers you 
rightly), there should be nothing imputed to the printer, 
which is imposed for, not by him, on his papers, but was 
never impressed on his mind. I am very much mistaken in 
his character, or he is a plain-hearted, sensible, and good- 
natured honest man. I believe, when there is anything put 
into his presses with a view to such infamous slander, . . . 
he himself is the only man wounded: for I think there is 
an openness in his spirit that would even repel the profits 
of his business, when they were to be the consequence of 
making war upon excellence." 1 

With Richardson, whom he thus defends so ingeniously, 
Hill had been corresponding at intervals for over two years. 
The close of his friendship with the great poet of the 
age thus coincides with the early stages of that with the 
novelist soon to become famous. The two friendships offer 
interesting contrasts. Pope and Hill loved each other with 
certain reservations : they were always on their guard after 
that Dunciad episode, — Hill doubtful of Pope's sincerity 
and, in spite of himself, jealous of his popularity; Pope 

i February 21, 1739. Works, I, 334. 
239 



240 AARON HILL 

quite justly uneasy about his moral character, and never 
certain at what moment Hill would exhibit unexpected 
acuteness. The relations of Hill and Richardson were of 
quite a different sort: there was no room for jealousy — 
they were competing for public favor in different fields ; 
they needed each other — Hill's circumstances required 
sympathy and help, and Richardson, distrustful of his 
own powers, needed the stimulus of constant flattery and 
encouragement; their tastes were similar — they liked to 
write long letters about their works and their nerves and 
their medicines, they both had a horror of Milton's prose, 2 
and neither had sense of humor enough to disturb the 
other. In its interchange of elaborate compliment and 
enthusiastic commendation, the correspondence recalls the 
Clio days, with" the relative importance and influence of 
the writers reversed. It is the most important so far dis- 
cussed : that with Pope merely adds further confirmation to 
facts about him accessible elsewhere ; that with Richardson 
is essential for the story of his life during the crucial years 
when Pamela and Clarissa were written. From March, 
1736, to August, 1749, there are more than one hundred 
and fifty letters, preserved partly in Hill's Works, partly 
in the first volume of Richardson's Correspondence, but 
chiefly in the MS. folios of the Forster Collection at South 
Kensington. 3 These letters have already been drawn upon 
in the discussion of Hill's projects and his relations with 
Pope ; what remains to be considered are the great events of 
Pamela and Clarissa, with a background of Richardson's 
nervous tremors, Hill's family misfortunes, and his undy- 
ing literary aspirations. 

The acquaintance perhaps began in business dealings, for 

2 Hill to Richardson, May 29, 1738. Worls, I, 267. 

s When not otherwise stated, the references are to letters in the 
Forster Collection. Austin Dobson, in his Fielding, 1883, was the 
first to make use of the Hill letters in the Forster MSS. 



HILL AND RICHAKDSON 241 

the letters of 1736, aside from the usual amenities, are 
mainly concerned with printing arrangements for Alzira. 
The next year Hill was involved in financial difficulties 
that placed him in the spring "under an unexpected obliga- 
tion to retire abroad." 4 In April he was in Southampton, 
where the memory of a visit twenty years before with his 
wife inspired him to verse. 5 In May he was in Guernsey 
and in Jersey, visiting on friendly terms with General 
Fielding and Governor Grahame; 6 and in June, in Edin- 
burgh. 7 Less than a year later, he wrote from Buxton 
Wells in Derbyshire that during his solitary ramble of 
many months he had visited some of "our own and neigh- 
boring sea-coasts. ' ' 8 A letter of July 5, 1738, from Gilbert 
Hill, an accomplished beggar, to Sir Hans Sloane, declares 
(in Latin) that the absence of his brother from London 
for more than a year, "suis rebus domesticis se bene non 
habentibus," has increased his own troubles. 9 Hill's affairs 
must have straightened themselves out to some extent 
shortly afterwards, for at the end of July he was planning 
to settle outside of London, after selling the best part of a 
too little fortune; 10 and at the end of the year he went 
with his daughters to live at Plaistow, in Essex, east of 
London. Plaistow was at the time a "pleasant rural vil- 
lage," though flat and marshy, " 'with roomy old houses 
and large gardens, famous like Banstead Down for its 
mutton. ' ' ni Hill expected to make it famous for its vine- 
yards. From 1739, Richardson spent much of his time at 

4 Hill to Eichardson, October, 1737. Eichardson 's Correspondence, 
I, 11. 

s Alone in an Inn at Southampton, Works, III, 331. 

6 Works, 1754 ed., I, 336-333. ' 

7 Hill to Urania Hill, Ju^e 23, 1737. Works, 1754 ed., I, 335. 
s Hill to Pope, May 11, 1738. Works, I, 248. 

9 Sloane MSS, 4055. f. 347. 
io Hill to Pope, July 31, 1738. Works, I, 290. 
n Austin Dobson: Richardson, 66. 
17 



242 AAEON HILL 

North End, near Hammersmith turnpike ; and as it was 
evidently no easy matter to get from Plaistow in the east 
to Hammersmith in the west, Hill and Richardson had to 
carry on their intercourse chiefly by letter. 12 

There are a few pleasant pictures of the Plaistow home, — 
' ' a quiet, and not quite unpleasant solitude ; a place that 
seems to have been only formed for books, and meditation, 
and the Muses." 13 Astraea Hill tries to persuade Mrs. 
Richardson to visit them: 14 "not that we have, here, any 
beauties to boast of, except those of Nature and Innocence, 
and those, too, are confined to the Garden. Our House is 
too Old, and we ourselves are too New, to be worth the 
Regard of the Curious. But without doors, I hope, we can 
make you Amends: for there we have Silence, and Water, 
and Wood enough, and Vineyard®, and Rockwork, and a 
good deal of outlet all around us. We have also one nobler 
Delight, that of changing deserts into groves . . . daily em- 
ploying ourselves in contriving new Views, and new Walks, 
and new Grottos." 15 

But pleasant glimpses are rare. In the spring of 1739, 
while setting out his vines, Hill was "surprised by an 
ague ' ' ; and though from time to time in the following 

12 Lord Hervey writes (November 27, 1736) of the road between 
Kensington and St. James that it had "grown so infamously bad, 
that we live here in the same solitude as we should do if cast on a 
rock in the middle of the ocean, and all the Londoners tell us there 
is between them and us a great impassable gulf of mud. ' ' (Memoirs 
of the Reign of George II, ed. J. W. Croker, 1884, II, 362, n. 9.) 

is Hill to Eichardson, January, 1743. Bichardson's Corres., I, 88. 

"December 17, 1740. 

is The young ladies went angling for carp, like Pamela ; and once, 
under the spell of her sweet compassion, they saved the lives of a bag- 
ful of eels by throwing them into the carp pond; the ungrateful 
' ' reptile rascals ' ' ate the carp, and had to be drawn out of the pond 
with garden rakes by the Misses Hill, to the great amusement of their 
father (Hill to Eichardson, November 25, 1748). 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 243 

months he speaks of an improvement or a relapse, the 
effects of this illness lasted for more than a year. Agues 
continued to surprise the whole family. "My daughters 
have been sensible some time," he writes in 1742 (Feb- 
ruary 25), "that Plaistow has a moist, malignant Air, that 
makes severe and lasting Agues a sure consequence of their 
indulging a sweet evening Walk, or disregarding Change 
of Wind to the cold quarters." He describes himself, a 
few months later, as shrinking away in flesh and spirit, 
with neither strength nor appetite, and all the family in the 
same condition, or just recovered from it; he has lost a 
.gardener of unusual accomplishments, and has, in fact, 
seen most of the inhabitants of "this unlucky and ill-chosen 
place" buried. 16 Once, Astraea's languor was overcome 
by the "animated ideas" of Clarissa, 17 but only such extra- 
ordinary remedies were effective. 

Yet Hill was much more concerned about the tremors of 
Richardson than the agues of his own household. For his 
benefit, he recalls the sweating-tent (no bigger than a hoop- 
skirt) which he had seen in Turkey and Persia; he dis- 
cusses hot and cold baths and their effects on different 
"habits" of body; the Bath waters and the Scarborough 
waters ; vinegar for the gout ; and large doses of coffee for 
Richardson's dizziness. The latter tried the coffee, but 
unfortunately found his dizziness increase under the treat- 
ment. Bishop Berkeley's tar- water is of "infinite extent 
in its virtue," if made with water in which oak shavings 
have been boiled. 18 Though he prescribed with a blithe 

is October 24, 1742. Richardson's Corres., I, 80. 

17 December, 1747. 

is This oak-tincture is responsible for a rare touch of levity : Hill, 
suddenly realizing the absurdity of a phrase wishing health to all the 
pretty shooting branches of his friend's family, adds, "How natural 
the step, from such a wooden Metaphor, to put you in mind of your 
Oak-Tincture" (October 25, 1746). 



24:4 AARON HILL 

assurance, Hill knew little of the condition of his patient; 
for when he saw him for the first time after some years, he 
was surprised and touched "with an Extremity of grief, to 
mark the shakings of so strong a hand." 19 Eichardson, in 
his turn, recommended the smoky air of London and asses' 
milk, and urged the Hills at one time to take possession of 
North End in the absence of his own family. 20 

It was not willingly that the Hills remained in what 
Richardson called "that terrible marsh-pit." In 1742 
(February 25), they had two other places in mind nearer 
London ; and in July of the same year, Hill had been look- 
ing at a little estate to the north. In November, 1744, they 
were planning to leave Plaistow the next spring ; and again 
in 1747 (December 3), they limited their stay to one 
summer more. The obstacle in the way seems to have been 
a long-drawn-out Chancery suit. In the midst of his 
illness in 1739, Hill was compelled to go to town "to settle 
accounts with just such a tedious and slow-paced executor 
as I would wish to your enemy's purposes." 21 He returned 
to Essex in a very melancholy frame of mind, his nerves 
shaken by his anger at the "Injustice and Tricks of the 
Low-hearted."- 2 The person responsible for the trouble 
figures in the letters as "a little Villain, whom the Defect 
(or rather slowness of Pace in the Helps) of our Laws has 
impowered to perplex my Affairs," and as "a vile wretch, 
who has trifled with me these four or five years past, in 

19 February, 1749. 

20 October 29, 1742. Corres., I, 83. For all these medical discus- 
sions, the correspondence is not so lugubrious as that of Eichardson 
and Dr. Young. Hill notes that people die at Plaistow, but he does 
not, like Young, ring their knells : "as I was going to fold my letter, 
I heard a second knell" (Eichardson 's Corres., II, 10). 

21 Hill to Eichardson, December 19, 1739. Eichardson 's Corres., I, 
33. 

22 December 23, 1739. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 245 

matters of the utmost importance." 23 Between 1744 and 
1746, the little villain gives place to a still more trouble- 
some law-suit; and "dull and turbulent Law Processes" 
were in full swing by July 21, 1746, when Hill and his 
daughters were awaiting "the issue of the Suit we have 
been forc'd into, by One of their Trustees, upon the Other's 
death, in great arrears to us — and his own Circumstances 
much entangled." 24 Perhaps money from his wife's family 
was left in trust for his daughters ; and possibly the trustee 
who died in debt was the vile wretch of a few years before. 25 
From 1746 until his death, Hill vainly expected each term 
to see the end of this suit. 26 He grew convinced that ' ' the 
Pit poor Joseph was cast into was a mouse-hole in Com- 
parison with John Bull 's bottomless one ' ' f 7 and as late as 
January, 1749, he had a "huge paltry Barricade of 
Chancery Lumber thrown up . . . with a long vile Per- 
plexity of stamped accounts to disentangle ; which the most 
persisting Courage in the "World would stagger at assault- 
ing." 

There were other troubles besides this of the law-suit. 
In May, 1739, "an unhappy fugitive" from the family 
(perhaps a nephew, from the nature of the allusions) died 
under circumstances that pointed to murder, but proved 
to be suicide, as Hill told Richardson in confidence. 28 

23 January 8, 1740. Richardson 's Corres., I, 37. 

2 4 July 10, 1746. He made some application early in 1744 {Corres., 

I, 108). 

25 As no names are mentioned by Hill and the nature of the action is 
only vaguely indicated, the tracing of the suit is more difficult than 
important. A search through the lists of Chancery suits for 1744- 
1746, with the names of Hill and his daughters as clues, brought no 
result. 

26 See, for instance, his letters of December 3, 1747, and January 

II, 1749. 

27 May 5, 1748. 

28 Richardson 's Corres., I, 24. 



246 AARON HILL 

Within a few months, his daughter Urania, Thomson's 
"young darling of the Muses," 29 made a rash love-match 
with a Mr. Johnson, whom after his death, seven years 
later, Hill described as an honest, modest man. But at the 
time Hill was much offended, for in mentioning his 
daughters he adds, "the only two of 'em, I mean, whom I 
now own as such." 30 Mr. Johnson heedlessly ran through 
a good fortune of his own and a better of his wife's, before 
he grew melancholy and died, not having patience, Hill 
wrote, to await the issue of the law-suit that was to relieve 
the difficulties of the whole family. 31 Perhaps he was wise. 
Hill's only son proved another source of acute anxiety. 
His "juvenile weaknesses" were causing so much concern 
in April, 1741, that his father feared him incapable of 
' ' the solid, or serious, Turn of Mind ; whether in Learning, 
or Business." 32 There are dark hints of the nature of his 
performances in a letter of July 29, of that year: "I fear, 
vain, application to prevent the ruin of a youth, who being 
born without an aptitude to think, was destined to be led 
away by every Light Temptation ; and who, in undesigned, 
and unfelt, Contradiction to the bias of a weak good 
Nature, takes hardly any steps, but such as tend the 
shortest and dirtiest way to a "Waste and Infamy. Imagine 
for us, from this general Hint of an Affliction that has 
many branches." In reply to Richardson's hesitating in- 
quiry, five years later, after a "young too near male rela- 
tion," Hill writes that, though he does not see him for 
many months together, he hears of him too many ways, and 
unhappily almost every way. He has gone through a con- 
siderable fortune, weakly left to his early management by 
"an unthinking grandmother," and is living dissolutely 

29 Thomson to Hill, June 11, 1726. Col. of 1751. 

so September 27, 1739. 

si July 10, 1746. 

32 Letter of April 13. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 247 

in London; Hill tries to hope that he is not without an 
inclination to a "slow irresolute repentance." 33 

All these misfortunes from climate, law-suits, and unde- 
sirable relations, might well have robbed Hill of any spirit 
for literature. Yet, during the dozen years at Plaistow, 
he wrote The Fanciad, The Impartial, The Religion of 
Reason, The Art of Acting, Merope, tracts on war and on 
agriculture (unpublished), and some versions of the odes 
of Horace; 34 he also prepared Gideon for the press, three 
books being published with elaborate notes ; and he planned 
another enterprise that connects him once more with 
Mallet's career. 

The Duchess of Marlborough, who died in October, 1744, 
bequeathed a thousand pounds to Mallet and Glover, if 
they would undertake a biography of the great Duke. 
Glover declined, but Mallet accepted. Now a life of the 
Duke was one of Hill's projects. His Fanciad, published 
in May, 1743, was written to stir up the Marlborough 
family to a realization of the need of an adequate biog- 
raphy; 35 and it might well have stirred them somewhat, if 
they had read it. 36 He rather expected it to fall somehow 

33 October 25, 1746. 

34 To be printed in the Daily Gazetteer, with which Eichardson had 
some connection till shortly before June, 1746; a letter from Hill of 
June 13 comments on Eichardson 's reasons for dropping it. 

35 Hill to Eichardson, April 2, 1743. Corres., I, 89. 

36 The scene opens in the library of the present Duke, who is 
startled first by the apparition of the great general, who discusses 
the foreign situation, and then by the Fury Faction, who proclaims 
from innumerable tongues the troubles at home. From the Fury he 
is snatched up into the chariot of Fancy, where he finds Truth, 
forced to borrow charms from Fancy in an age so indifferent to her 
unadorned perfection. The chariot conveys them to the genius of 
Britain, who arises from the sea to tell them, among other things, 
how Marlborough, while conversing with Michael in heaven on war- 
like themes, with Caesar as an attentive listener, heard of certain 
designs of France against England, and promptly frustrated them 



248 AAEON HILL 

into their hands, though he would not send it himself, lest 
his motive might appear interested. 37 Richardson hastened 
to assure him that his was the hand fittest for the his- 
torian's task. 38 This Hill denied; but he disclosed a plan 
to write an essay covering the events of one year (that of 
the Blenheim campaign), just to prove the inadequacy of 
previous histories, and to suggest how much better still the 
work could be done with the aid of the private family 
memoirs. 39 Then Eichardson reported 40 that the Duchess 
was said to be at work digesting these papers with the 
assistance of Mr. Hooke; but through the booksellers he 
presently learned that the Duchess was less busy than he 
supposed. 41 

In June, Hill sent the Fanciad to Mallet, in response to 
an inquiry how he was spending his leisure, and asked him 
to find out, if possible, from the Duchess, whether there 
was material enough for a life. "Don't imagine me so 
vain to think myself half qualified for such a task as the 
Duke's history. I did but wish to see some willing under- 
taker equal to it. ' ' 42 The letter arranges for a meeting the 
next Tuesday at St. Paul's Coffee House. The result of 

by despatching a wily spirit to lure Fleury's thoughts to trade; as 
interest in trade meant decline in martial vigor, England was spared 
a dangerous war. After throwing a new light on history by this 
masterpiece of explanation, the Genius sheds three tears, sighs three 
times, and sinks into the sea. Fancy follows unexpectedly, nearly 
drowning her passengers, but Truth snatches the reins just in time 
and drives the young duke home. In a final exhortation, she points 
out to him his duty of seeing that his noble ancestor is placed in a 
proper light before the world — unless the task is made unnecessary by 
the Duchess, so conspicuous for her noble taste of glory. 

37 Hill to Eichardson, April 2, 1743. Corres., I. 

38 Eichardson to Hill, April 2, 1743. 

39 Hill to Eichardson, April 5, 1743. Corres., I, 93. 

40 April 7, 1743. 

4i Hill to Eichardson, April 25, 1743. 

42 Hill to Mallet, June 2, 1743. Works, II, 229. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 249 

the meeting can be partly conjectured from what happened 
later. Probably Mallet did become interested in Hill 's idea. 
By October 20, he had some new engagement, about which 
#Hill was very curious; it may or may not have been con- 
nected with the Duke 's life. Hill himself was at work upon 
another poem by the following spring. But in December, 
1744, he wrote a "long and curious" letter to Mallet on the 
provision in the Duchess's will. 43 Mallet made no satis- 
factory reply; and Hill talked the matter over with 
Richardson : ' ' By your mentioning the visit from our 
Strand Green Friend [Mallet], you just put me on remem- 
bering to ask you, whether he proceeds upon the Marlboro' 
History? I hope he don't. For tho' he was the person 
whom I aim'd to hint to the old Duchess, in the Fanciad, 
yet I make no Scruple to confess, I looked upon the poor 
consideration she assigned him for it, and her odd and half 
contemptuous method of expressing that assignment, as so 
unequivalent, to all the Genius, Labour, Skill, and many 
years' Attention, due to such a Work, if rightly executed, 
that I used the strongest Arguments I could produce, with 
purpose to dissuade him; . . . and he promised me his 
weighed and future Sentiments upon this Subject. But 
continues silent on it. ... I am afraid he lets himself be 
tempted — tho' the Lady was a little past enchantment, and 
her Apple was both Crabb and Windfall." 44 Richardson 
replied that Mallet was going on, and had made great 
progress; he expected his reward in the work itself — an 
unusually disinterested point of view for Mallet ! 45 In the 
letters, chiefly of gossip and compliment, between Mallet 
and Hill during the years 1746 to 1749 — the two families 
were evidently on pleasant calling terms, — Hill usually 
refers to his friend as the Duke's historian, and once ex- 

43 Hist. MS. Comm., Appendix to 9th Keport, 476.. 

44 October 25, 1746. 

45 October 29, 1746. 



250 AARON HILL 

presses his longing to see a Marlborough's face in the glass 
Mallet is silvering for it. 46 But neither Hill nor anyone 
else ever saw it. 

In practically all of Hill's work published after 1736, 
Richardson was concerned as printer. But no printer not 
also a friend and a very generous one would have conferred 
so many favors as he did. The nature of these obligations 
is suggested in the following acknowledgment from Hill : 47 
"What you have done, in relation to the bills and the 
advertisements [of Alzira], at once obliges and confounds 
me — I mean the Gracefulness and Generosity of your 
Spirit, in the Intention. — For I do, and must, consider 
myself as still undischarged, in that particular, and only 
more your debtor from the disposition you have shown to 
remit the obligation." Another letter 48 acknowledges the 
receipt of a hundred pounds, sent in a "surprisingly" 
obliging manner, and other instances might be quoted. In 
addition to these services, Richardson gave advice about 
dedications, titles, favorable times for publication, and the 
like. 49 Only twice did anything threaten interruption of 
these amicable relations. Once, when slightly ruffled by a 
comment of Hill's upon Clarissa, Richardson writes with 
elaborate politeness that if any other printer ("Watts or 
Draper, for instance) has offered to publish either of 
Hill's charming dramatic pieces, no generous intentions to 
himself must stand in the way. Hill's reply betrays per- 
plexity, as neither Watts nor Draper had expressed any 
desire to print his plays. 50 The misunderstanding finally 
passed off, without the interposition of any other printer. 

« Hill to Mallet, July 28, 1748. Works, II, 334. 

47 July 5, 1736. 

48 November, 1746. Corres., I, 118. 

49 His remonstrances induced Hill to alter the extraordinary title 
Go to Bed, Tom, to The Fanciad. 

so Richardson to Hill, January 5, 1747, and Hill's reply January 23. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 251 

Again, Richardson, hard-pressed by his work for the House 
of Commons, turned Gideon over to another press; and 
Hill, hearing nothing for some time either of his poem 
or of his friend, writes that he is mortified to find Richard- 
son so inattentive to Gideon. 51 Richardson in his reply 
next day refers feelingly to the business that has kept him 
at work from five in the morning to eleven at night; if 
Gideon goes on slowly, Clarissa, out of print for two 
months, does not go on at all. 

Hill did not depend entirely on the outcome of his law- 
suit for the means to discharge his obligations to Richard- 
son. As far back as December 23, 1739, he planned to 
assign to him a collection of old and new pieces, but was 
deterred by the very just fear that they would prove 
"chargeable children." "I therefore think," he writes, 52 
"that I ought not only to offer it to you as a present, which 
I heartily wish might be worth your acceptance; but, in 
order to render it more certainly such, to be myself at the 
charge of your printing and publishing it." It was a 
discouragement to the scheme of a collection that the sepa- 
rate poems made so little headway. 53 In 1748, Hill was 
still engaged in transcribing and retranscribing his works, 
and worrying over his indebtedness to Richardson. 54 Not 
that Richardson asked repayment: "You are so very 
earnest, ' ' he wrote in 1748, ' ' about transferring to me the 
copyright to all your works, that I will only say, that that 
point must be left to the future issues of things. But I 
will keep account. ... It is therefore time enough to think 
of the blank receipt you have had the goodness to send me 

si May 9, 1749. Richardson printed the Journals of the House. 

52 January 8, 1740. Corres., I, 37. 

ss From a letter from Eichardson of July 1, 1746, we learn that the 
collection was to consist of two volumes of poetry, and two entitled 
Vocal Shades, — original letters, mixed with a few Prompters. 

s* Hill to Eichardson, May 5, 1748. 



252 AARON HILL 

to fill up. ' ' 55 When in January, 1749, Mallet secured from 
Millar the publisher a proposal for printing Merope, Hill 
was loth to accept it, because it involved the copyright that 
he always considered Richardson's. Richardson appeared 
willing to forego that advantage, — in fact, he had been 
partly instrumental in persuading Millar to make the offer ; 
for Millar had a large business and the means of promoting 
the sale of what he engaged in. As to copyright, "You 
must excuse me, Sir, but I cannot upon any Account, think 
of accepting of your generous present of that Kind. ' ' 56 It 
is interesting that Richardson planned to return Hill's 
favor by bequeathing his own writings to his ' ' friendly care 
and judgment." 57 

Hill never really lost faith that his works would in the 
end be accepted by the public, and prove profitable to some- 
one — preferably Richardson. Yet the successive shocks 
administered by a callous public during these years 
gradually forced him into that last refuge of the unsuc- 
cessful author, — contempt of his age. Richardson tried to 
blame the cold reception of The Religion of Reason (1746) 
on the popular absorption in political events. But it is 
unnecessary to look beyond the poem itself — by no means 
devoid of merit — for an explanation of the public indif- 
ference. Interest in deistic ideas had been declining since 
Tindal's death; and deism in blank verse, — belated echoes 
of the attacks on a monopoly of revelation, on the pride 
and stubbornness of the favored Jews, on the fanaticism 
that left the negroes or the Chinese or the Hindus out of 
the scheme of salvation, — could scarcely arrest attention. 58 

ss October 27, 1748. Corres., I, 119. 

56 Richardson to Hill, January 12, 1749. 

57 Richardson to Hill, July 24, 1744. Corres., I, 102. 

58 That Hill had some sympathy with deism is quite natural ; it 
took in all races and all worlds; and to Hill narrow and confined 
ideas in religion would be as repugnant as in trade. There are 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 253 

Hill, however, caught at the friendly explanation: "If it 
proves otherwise, I must either have no power of thinking 
at all, or must think of this age very despicably. ' ' 59 

Perhaps Richardson grew tired of hearing censure of the 
age that approved of him; for he gently hinted to Hill at 
last that genius must try to accommodate itself to the time 
it lives in, "since works published in this age must take 
root in it to nourish in the next." The taste of the world, 
he goes on, has altered since Hill withdrew from it; 
"your writings require thought to read . . . and the world 
has no thought to bestow." It wants simplicity; it does 
not want to dig for jewels in a mine. "Your sentiments, 
even they will have it who allow them to be noble, are too 
munificently adorned. . . . And yet, for my own part, I 
am convinced that the fault lies in that indolent . . . 
world." 60 Hill took the friendly plainness of the letter 
well, but did not back down from his position. He knew 
his writings were unpopular — he always expected them to 
be so ; " nor shall I live to see them in another light. But 
there will rise a time in which they will be seen in a far 
different one ; I know it, on a surer hope than that of 
vanity." As for simplicity — no one loves simplicity more 
than he ; but he is apparently the only one who understands 

good lines in the poem ? and fewer absurdities than usual; for 
example : 

"This dim ball 
That day by day rolls round its eyeless bulk." 
"Where the broad sea, scarce heard, rolls murmuring in." 
"Turn thy sight eastward, o'er the time-hushed plains, 
Now graves of vanished empire." 
Hill concludes by deciding to doubt all faiths, "undoubting God," 
until 

"Death opening Truth's barred gate, 'tis time to see 
God's meanings, in the light his presence lends." 
^ September 15, 1746. 
co October 27, 1748. Corres., I, 119. 



254 AARON HILL 

its true meaning, and Kichardson the only one who ex- 
emplifies it in the present age. The "dim humble 
wretches" who cry about it mean "the unjogging slide of 
something . . . that paces their lame understanding smoothly 
on, and does not shake it out of a composure necessary to 
its weakness." Simplicity is merely a weaker word for 
propriety; "everything is simple, that has nothing added 
contrary to its own quality; and everything unsimple, that 
has foreign and unnatural annexions. If a camel were to 
be described, it might be done with all the requisite 
simplicity, however loftily the poet should express the 
beast's raised neck, majestic pace, and venerable counte- 
nance. But from the moment he began to mention claws 
and courage, as the camel's attributes, his deviation from 
the rules of true simplicity would justly call for the re- 
proach of too magnificently adorned; not because camels 
ought not to be spoken of magnificently, but because 
there should not be assigned them a magnificence repugnant 
to their nature. ' ' 61 All quite true ; but so far as it applies 
to Hill, the difficulty is not that he supplies his camels 
with claws — it is his astonishing way of picturing their 
humps. 62 

Richardson had no reason for despising an age in which 
his own writings were taking root, and Hill could not deny 
that the age showed good taste in appreciating work of 
which he approved enthusiastically. Richardson's novels 
provide the most cheerful and entertaining topic in the 
correspondence. 

On December 8, 1740, Richardson, without declaring 
himself the author, sent the two volumes of Pamela to be- 
guile the young ladies at Plaistow in a tedious winter 

6i November 2, 1748. Corres., I, 124. 

02 Even in a literal sense : see Gideon, book II, stanza 21 — 
"Next, loaded high, the bunchy camels go, 
Stepping, with straight raised neck, sublimely slow." 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 255 

hour. 63 "The book was published many months before I 
saw or heard of it," wrote Hill to Mallet, assuring him 
that he had no share in the authorship of ' ' that delightful 
nursery of virtues," "and when he sent it me ... it came 
without the smallest hint that it was his, and with a grave 
apology, as for a trifle of too light a species. I found out 
whose it was, by the resembling turn of Pamela's expres- 
sions, weighed with some which I had noted as peculiar in 
his letters. Yet very loth he was a long time to confess it. ' ' 
He adds — and he was a true prophet for once — "I am 
much mistaken in the promise of his genius, or Pamela . . . 
is but the dawning of the day he is to give us." 64 With 
Eichardson Hill at first pretended ignorance, and urged 
him to name the author of the "powerful little piece," in 
a fervid letter included among the ' ' greasy compliments ' ' 
later printed in the introduction to the second edition of 
Pamela. 65 Richardson was, in fact, very much delighted 
with the unqualified approbation of the Hill family. How 
could he name the author after such praise 1 He was more 
effusive than he quite approved later, when, in going over 
the copies of his letters, he scratched out some expressions 
relating to Hill's godlike mind and matchless genius. 66 

Hill's reply overflowed with enthusiasm. 67 Part of it 
contains a new and very insinuating form of flattery, de- 
scribing the effect of Pamela on a six-year-old child in the 
family — "a pretty, gentle, gay-spirited" boy, a poor 
soldier 's son, whom the Hills seem to have adopted. ' ' The 

63 Pamela was published in November. 

64 January 23, 1741. Works, II, 158. 

65 December 17, 1740. Corres., I, 53. The characterization of 
this and other compliments was made by one of Eichardson 's critics 
(February 7, 1741. Forster MSS. Folio XVI). 

66 Eichardson to Hill, December 22, 1740. 

67 Eichardson himself endorsed it ' ' too high praise ' ' It is dated 
December 29. The letter of the same date in the Correspondence 
(I, 55) is probably the concluding portion of that in the Forster MSS. 



256 AARON HILL 

wanton rogue is half air, and every motion he acts by has a 
spring like your Pamela's, when she threw down the card- 
table." This "tom-tit of a prater" happened to be present 
when Hill was reading aloud Pamela's reflections at the 
pond, upon the wisdom of suicide : ' ' The little rampant in- 
truder, being kept out by the extent of the circle, had crept 
under my chair, and was sitting before me on the carpet, 
with his head almost touching the book, and his face bowing 
down towards the fire. He had sat for some time in this 
posture, with a stillness that made us conclude him asleep ; 
when on a sudden we heard a succession of heart-heaving 
sobs. ... I turned his innocent face to look towards me, 
but his eyes were quite lost in his tears; which running 
down from his cheeks in free currents had formed two 
sincere little fountains on that part of the carpet he hung 
over. All the ladies in company were ready to devour him 
with kisses, and he has since become doubly a favorite; 
and is, perhaps, the youngest of Pamela's converts." 68 

The ' ' too high praise ' ' and the tale of Harry 's sensibility 
brought from Richardson an epigram for Hill and a book 
of fables for the boy. 69 Hill tells how he laid aside the 

68 Sensibility was profitable then. "Mrs. Belfour" (Correspond- 
ence, IV, 305) tells Kichardson how a lady read aloud to her intimate 
friends from volume VII of Clarissa, while her maid dressed her 
hair; but the maid showered tears so plentifully over her mistress 
that reading and curling had to be discontinued; and the lady was 
so pleased with the sensibility of the maid that she encouraged it by 
the gift of a crown. 

69 See letter from Hill, December, 1740, Corres., I, 59. This is 
the epigram: 

"When noble thoughts with language pure unite, 
To give to kindred excellence its right; 
Tho' unencumbered with the clogs of rhyme, 
Where tinkling sounds for want of meaning chime; 
Which, like the rocks in Shannon's midway course, 
Divide the sense and interrupt its force; 
Well we may judge so strong and clear a rill 
Flows hither from the Muses' sacred Hill." 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 257 

fables while he read the letter: "The busy pirate . . . fell 
to lifting the leaves one by one, and peeping between them 
with the archness and fear of a monkey; and I left him 
. . . unobserved to the enjoyment of his cautious discoveries, 
till I came to that paragraph in your letter where you call 
him the dear amiable boy, which I purposely read out aloud. 
At those words, up flashed all the fire of his eyes, with a 
mixture of alarm and attention; and just then one of my 
daughters happening to say: 'Now am I sure that this 
good-natured and generous Mr. Richardson has sent those 
two books for little Harry.' — 'See here,' added the other, 
'what it is to be praised for a boy that is wise and loves 
reading.' " Harry's ecstasy was unbounded. "His fairy 
face (ears and all) was flushed as red as his lips; and his 
flying feet told his joy to the floor, in a wild and stamping 
impatience of gratitude. At last he shot himself, in ac- 
knowledgment, upon me, with a force like a bullet; and 
. . . fell to kissing me for a minute or two together." 
Harry ' ' wanted art to explain his conceptions ' ' ; one would 
sometimes rather have his stamping raptures than Hill's 
more artful ecstasies. 70 

There is scarcely any diminution in Hill's raptures dur- 
ing the whole of the year 1741. 71 Mr. Richardson is his 

™ There are occasional later glimpses of the "little Campbell," 
one under ' ' the umbrage of a pair of out-strutting hoops. ' ' He re- 
mained one of Richardson's admirers, and developed some wit and 
much honesty, though he was not so good as his first shoot promised. 
Perhaps his sensibility decreased. He was one of the witnesses to 
Kickardson's will. 

7i Mrs. Jewkes kept Hill awake nights, "till the Ghost of Lady 
Davers, drawing open the Curtain, scares the Scarer of me and of 
Pamela" (January 15). Cf. the effect of Hill's Art of Acting on 
Richardson: "My whole frame, so nervously affected before, was 
shaken by it. I found such Tremors, such Startings, that I was un- 
able to go through it," until fortified by the oak-tincture (October 
29, 1746). 
18 



258 AARON HILL 

"dearest, wisest, most virtuous, and never enough to be 
loved" friend; and he Richardson's "troublesome but in- 
expressibly devoted" one. He offers to deal with any ob- 
jections which Richardson's modesty prevents his answer- 
ing, and he asks for the foundation of the story. The 
letter Richardson wrote in reply — very important for his 
biography, though less so for Hill 's — describes the originals 
of Pamela and Mr. B., and the inception of the volume of 
familiar letters which grew into Pamela. 72 The whole 
family visited Richardson at Salisbury Court in July — the 
girls apparently meeting him for the first time; for when 
they were meditating the visit, Hill threatened to send 
their true pictures before them, that Richardson "might 
expect to see nothing extraordinary; and one of the bag- 
gages answered me that the most extraordinary thing I 
could send would be the pictures of women drawn truly. ' ' 73 
In October, the young ladies were in Surrey, "preaching 
Pamela and Pamela's author with true apostolical attach- 
ment." 

With one persistent request of Richardson 's — to ' ' render 
Pamela more worthy" of their approbation by correcting 
her — no one in the family was disposed to comply. He sent 
the girls an interleaved copy of the book for this purpose, 74 
but they filled the sheets with "progressive memorandums 
of the Benefits her conversation brought them." 75 As 
Richardson continued to insist "kindly and warmly" on 
corrections, Hill sent a few verbal suggestions, after going 
through the book once with the eye and the heart of a 
cynic, and again with the vigilance of friendship. 76 Later, 
he "improved" some passages by the addition of a 

72 Corres., I, lxix f. 

" Hill to Eichardson, April 21, 1741. Cones., I, 70. 

-i December 22, 1740. 

-5 December 30, 1740. 

76 April 13, 1741. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 259 

"slightly poetic turn." 77 One objection of an anonymous 
writer had a little weight, in his opinion, — "that, which 
advises some little Contraction of the Prayers and Appeals 
to the Deity. I say little Contraction : for they are nobly 
and sincerely Pathetic. And I say it only in Fear, lest, if 
fancied too long by the fashionably Averse to the Subject, 
Minds which most want the purposed Impression, might 
hazard the Loss of its Benefits, by passing over those pious 
Reflexions, which, if shorter, would catch their Atten- 
tion." 78 He himself cautiously suggests that Pamela, in 
writing to her parents, might sometimes refer to Mr. B. as 
"beloved," instead of always "best-beloved"; for there is 
a little harshness in this marked preference of the conjugal 
to the filial affection. 79 But these trifling criticisms only 
show how little Pamela needs alteration: "I would not 
scratch such a beautiful Face for the Indies." 80 

Hill was, if possible, more enthusiastic over the con- 
tinuation of Pamela than over the first part. After re- 
hearsing the least that could be said of its merits (which 
included boundless invention, bold and vast reflection, 
sharp and generous satire, and the like), and declaring that 
he "never could endure a lukewarm approbation," he 
expresses a desire to have the "sweet charmer's life" 
lengthened to a fifth and even a sixth volume: "Do oblige 
mankind with this Concession. Nothing ever equall'd 
what you write: and, tho' you were to give the World as 
many Volumes doubled as the Six I pray for, not a Reader 
would complain, but at the end of the last Paragraph. ' ' 81 

11 December 15, 1741. 

78 January 6, 1741. 

79 February 25, 1742. 
so January 6, 1741. 

81 October 22, 1741. To the present-day reader, this request sounds 
monstrous. But there were admirers of Eichardson — and people of 
sense, too, — who read every one of his volumes through once a year. 



260 AARON HILL 

In his next novel, Richardson did his best to satisfy this 
thirst for many volumes. The progress of Clarissa Har- 
lowe is very fully reported in the correspondence. It was 
far from being, like Pamela, a two-months' labor; and to 
follow its development through the many closely written 
pages of the letters of four years is to gain an indelible im- 
pression of the seriousness and extent of the undertaking. 

The first news of Pamela's successor — welcome after 
dismal talk of the ill-success of The Fanciad and The Im- 
partial — is Hill's acknowledgment of the receipt of the 
"good and beautiful design" of a new attempt; "you must 
give me leave to be astonished," he writes, "when you 
tell me you have finished it already!" 82 This evidently 
did not mean that it was ready for publication. With the 
first instalments of the new novel (sent in November, 1744) 
came the author 's usual request that Hill do some pruning ; 
he replied that he could not think of it. Again, a few 
weeks later, he sees no "modest possibility of doing it," 
for — and his reason is good — "you have formed a style, 
as much your property as our respect for what you write 
is, where verbosity becomes a virtue; because, in pictures 
which you draw with such a skilful negligence, redundance 
but conveys resemblance ; and to contract the strokes would 
be to spoil the likeness." 83 "With four MS. volumes of 
Clarissa in his hands, Hill is "beyond expression, impatient 
to attend her Elopement to her Lover," — an impatience 
in which he has the modern reader's sympathy. 84 

By March, Richardson is already much disturbed by the 
length of his masterpiece; and so are his friends. Hill, 

Thomas Edwards, of The Canons of Criticism, was one; and he 
wept over the 7th volume of Clarissa as much in 1755 as he had in 
1748 (Corres., Ill, 111). 

82 July 24, 1744. Corres., I, 101. 

83 January 7, 1745. Corres., I, 9&. 
s* February 28, 1745. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 261 

however, refuses to join in the remonstrances made by "the 
erring Diligence" of his "curtailing Friends." He begins 
to waver a little a month later, when he realizes that five 
books give admission only to the hall of the delightful 
building; yet Nature is lovely, though she lead us over 
"boundless wilds." 85 Even at the end of the year, he will 
not admit that the "still growing as well as lengthening 
Beauty" is too tall; but, he adds, "if there is any Place, 
that can be shortened, without maiming this delightful 
Composition, You, who have created it, and have it's whole 
Proportion and Connexion in your Eye, at once, are better 
justified in doing it" than anyone else; "it is in the first 
stages (if at all) that you must look for lopping Places. 
All your after-growths are sacred, to the smallest Twig." 88 
As Richardson kept on sending his manuscript and asking 
advice, Hill was forced to keep on explaining why he did 
not want the task of criticism. 87 In the effort to reassure 
Richardson, he takes refuge in some curious reasoning : 
"Your very full and striking Title Page informs us for 
what kind of Readers, chiefly, you adapt the use, of your 
instructive Story. — If you had designed a Piece, for the 
Severe, the Pensive, and the Practised, you would cer- 
tainly have acted right in cutting off whatever might seem 
spread too broad, or too remote from the main point in- 
tended. But you are here, endeavoring to fix the Mercury 
of Light, and inattentive Volatiles. " 88 A method not well 
adapted to the end, one would imagine ; but Hill thinks the 
Volatiles like to hear of what resembles them, and Richard- 
son must mix his instructions with what they like. 

This settled the matter for a time. But it came up again 
in the fall of 1746, and unfortunately found Hill less 

85 April 4, 1745. 

se Letter dated "end of 1745." 

S7 January 30, 1746, 

ss February 6, 1746. 



262 AARON HILL 

obdurate. Richardson was then planning to abridge some 
letters, and Hill suggests "cautiously retrenching Repeti- 
tions of the same Events" by throwing in "Notes, in places 
where it can be narratively done, without diminishing a 
fine Effect that rises very often . . . from different views 
and principles of Persons to whom the same Fact is re- 
lated." 89 This advice was general enough to be harmless. 
But he added some dangerously detailed comments on the 
characters of Lovelace and Clarissa — too detailed to be 
quoted at length. The gist of his criticism is that the lady 
ought to be really in love with Lovelace before the duel, 
and that he should be more generous in dealing with her 
brother — an impressive genteel compliment or two would 
not be amiss; such conduct would inspire Clarissa with 
confidence and put a better face on her desertion. Richard- 
son was so agitated by this letter that he turned it over to 
a friend, whose comments, arranged under five heads, he 
carefully copied out and attached to Hill's letter. The 
obliging friend found the observations mistaken, even 
though dictated by the brain of so sublime a genius as Hill : 
for Richardson's Lovelace, delighting in cruelty and in 
the tears of distressed beauty, they would substitute a Love- 
lace actuated by generosity and true love. And Clarissa 
in love — horrible ! ' ' Alas ! this Gentleman may have true 
Ideas of Common Life, but not of that exalted Spirit, 
which urges its Votaries to ascend the steep Summit of 
Perfection." In short, Hill has suggested a new Clarissa 
as well as a new Lovelace, — a confiding and unsuspecting 
one, "such a one as might easily be adopted by any giddy 
wench that ever ran away with her father's footman." It 
is fortunate that Hill did not see this arraignment of his 
delicacy. 

sa October 23, 1746. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 263 

Richardson's next letter contained an elaborate exposi- 
tion of his conception of his characters. Clarissa must 
not avow, even to herself, a passion whose object is un- 
worthy; she must subdue it; she must be so faultless that 
readers in doubt of a future life will realize that only a 
heavenly reward could justify her sufferings on earth. 
Lovelace is meant to be as unamiable as possible : " I once 
read to a young Lady Part of his Character, and then his 
end; and upon her pitying him, and wishing he had been 
rather made a Penitent, than to be killed, I made him 
more and more odious, by his heightened Arrogance and 
Triumph, as well as by his vile actions, leaving only some 
qualities in him laudable enough to justify her first liking." 
Poor Richardson was now in serious difficulties on the vital 
question of abridgment, not only with Hill, but with 
several other friends. A certain doctor advises him not to 
cut out any sentiments, but to follow the plan of the above- 
weight Newmarket jockeys — sweat away what he takes out; 
Mr. Cibber wants whole branches cut off — ' ' some of which, 
however, he dislikes not"; but these are just the branches 
Young would keep; and the doctor's wife, "a Woman of 
fine Sense," begs not to be robbed of any of her Acquaint- 
ance. Though he has carried out Hill's suggestion about 
the narrative notes, Richardson still finds the book "a vast 
deal too long"; and begs again for help. 90 

Hill, declaring himself satisfied with the analysis of the 
two leading characters, retired to the comparatively safe 
ground of the title, which he thinks should be adequate to 
Richardson's "unboundedness of Comprehension in the 
Subject." The title he suggests is adequate enough for 
anything : 

90 October 29 ? 1746. One of Eiehardson 's objects — displaying an 
unusually enlightened point of view — was "to expose that pernicious 
notion that a reformed rake . . . makes the best husband." 



264 AARON HILL 

" The Lady's Legacy : 

or 

The whole gay and serious Compass of the Human 

Heart laid open, 

For the service of both sexes. 

In the History of the Life and Ruin of 

a lately Celebrated Beauty 

Miss Clarissa Harlowe. 

Including 

Great Variety of other Lives and Characters 

Occasionally interested in the Moving Story. 

Detecting and exposing 

The most secret Arts and Subtlest Practices 

of 

That endangering Species of Triumphant Rakes 

call'd 

Women's Men. 

Assisted by corrupt and vicious Engines of the Sex they plot against. 

Published in compliance with the Lady's order on her death-bed, 

as a Warning to unguarded, vain, or credulous Innocence." 

The alternative title — for Hill was equal to more than one 
— is worse : 

" The Lady's Remembrancer : 

or 

The Way of a Young Man with a Maid. 

Being the whole," and so on as before. 

Hill thought this full enough without reference to the 
parents; but it really seems a little harsh to discriminate 
against them in so roomy a title. 91 

A short time after this achievement, Hill offered to try 
the Newmarket jockey method of contraction on a few 
letters. If the experiment does no other good, he declares, 
it may at least cure Richardson of his desire for curtail- 

9i November 5, 1746. Bichardson thought the title too long (Janu- 
ary 5, 1747). 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 265 

ment. 9 - Hill has been accused of tactlessness in making 
the attempt, 93 but it is hard to see what else he could have 
done, when Richardson's persistent appeals for help con- 
tinued after Hill had exhausted all his excuses for refusing. 
And the experiment did accomplish the cure Hill antici- 
pated; in addition, it unfortunately created a temporary- 
coolness in their friendship. When The New Clarissa 
arrived in December from Plaistow, Richardson was 
amazed. 94 By his computations, Hill's alterations in the 
eight or nine letters he had worked over would cut off 
about two-thirds, and reduce the whole to three volumes. 
This was too drastic — his purpose could scarcely be an- 
swered in so small a compass, "without taking from it 
those simple, tho' diffuse Parts, which some like, and have 
(however unduly) complimented me upon, as making a 
new species of writing." He is clearly quite miserable 
over the matter. One shocked little comment is hidden 
away in the margin of a page of The New Clarissa in the 
Forster MSS. Hill had put the exclamation "by Heaven" 
in the mouth of Arabella Harlowe : " To what regiment of 
guards," writes Richardson, "could this lady belong?" 
He assured Hill, however, that as a model his efforts would 
be of great service, and asked him to proceed farther in the 
volume and write a preface, as well. 

Hill could only exclaim in despair, "I knew . . . (and 
have told you so with a sincerity becoming the Affection I 
ever did, and ever must, bear you) that your Genius was as 
new as extensive; and that you constituted a new Species, 
by your peculiarly natural Manner of Writing. — I told 
you, too, that I judged it an impossibility, to shorten . . . 
without cutting off a Luxuriancy of beauties. And now, 
you have had an Example and Proof that everything I said 

92 November 20, 1746. 

93 C. L. Thomson : Samuel Eicliardson, 42. 

94 January 5, 1747. 



266 AARON HILL 

to you was true. And that wherever a Genius so peculiar 
as yours is, overruns the Space it allots itself, it is only 
the same Genius, that can, fitly, reduce it. ' ' Since Richard- 
son is unwilling to leave out the "lively Simplicities" that 
must be sacrificed if there is to be any reduction, he has 
destroyed his attempts at further alteration. Suppose one 
unreduced volume is tried on the public ; if they accept it, 
the rest can be printed without contraction. 95 

Richardson might have been appeased, if Hill had not 
gone on to reaffirm his views of Lovelace and Clarissa. 
He had seized the opportunity in his version to make 
Lovelace more of a gentleman — a more delicate thinker; to 
picture him so very black a villain would be to destroy the 
moral: what young woman would suppose her lover so 
base? It is a question whether the addition of Hillian 
delicacy of thought would not have made Lovelace a more 
impossible combination of qualities than critics usually 
agree he now is. But Richardson's reply proved there was 
no hope of his improvement : " I am a good deal warped by 
the character of a Gentleman I had in my Eye, when T 
drew both him, and Mr. B. in Pamela. The best of that 
gentleman for the latter; the worst of him for Lovelace, 
made still worse by mingling the worst of two other Char- 
acters, that were as well known to me, of that Gentleman's 
Acquaintance." 90 At least, Hill may be given credit for 
recognizing certain weaknesses in the conception of Love- 
lace, and for standing by his opinion. Most of Richard- 
son's correspondents were incapable of that much inde- 
pendence of thought in relation to his works. 

It was Clarissa, however, who nearly broke off the friend- 
ship. "No inducement, weaker than resistless Love," 

95 January 23, 1747. 

96 January 26, 1747. The gentleman who sat for these portraits 
of Lovelace and Mr. B. is sometimes identified as Philip, Duke of 
Wharton. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 267 

wrote Hill, "will justify Clarissa's rash elopement with a 
man." She could have refused her consent at the altar; 
and she had less to fear from her father's indignation at her 
rejection of the wretch he proposed to her than from 
"running away from his House, with a worse, if possible, 
of her own choosing. ' ' 97 This harsh characterization of the 
divine Clarissa's flight was more than Richardson could 
stand. He was greatly mortified that her act "should be 
called by such a clear discerner: a rash Elopement with a 
Man." He had tried to make it manifest that, though 
provoked in every way and even brought to promise to go 
off, she had met Lovelace only to refuse. "I am very un- 
fortunate, good Sir, ... to be so ill understood, to have 
given Eeason, I should say, to be so little understood. ' ' To 
confront Hill, he brings up the testimony of two very deli- 
cate minds of the "sex," who owned "they should not, in 
her Case, have been able, however reluctant, to avoid being 
carried off." 98 

Hill's conciliatory reply brought no answer, and he 
began to fear, after writing once more, that he might have 
been misunderstood. He reminded his friend that the 
office of "contractor" was undertaken at Richardson's re- 
quest; that his advice was asked; and he thought it his 
duty to point out in a frank and friendly manner the few 
places where there was room for criticism. He stubbornly 
reiterated, however, that Clarissa should be betrayed into 
meeting Lovelace. 99 

In the absence of any letters until the following Novem- 

97 This comment resembles in brutal frankness that of Lady M. W. 
Montagu on Clarissa : ' ' Any girl that runs away with a young fellow, 
without intending to marry him, should be carried to Bridewell or to 
Bedlam the next day" (Letters and Works, ed. W. Moy Thomas, II, 
232). 

as January 26, 1747. 

99 Hill to Eiehardson, January 28 and February 9, 1747. 



268 AARON HILL 

ber, it must be supposed that Richardson was not mollified. 
When the correspondence was reopened — apparently by 
Hill, — the dangerous subject was dropped altogether. Hill 
politely inquired what his friend meant to do with the 
divine Clarissa. Heaven forbid that he should leave pub- 
lication to his executors. Richardson responded by send- 
ing the first printed volumes, and thus throwing the whole 
family into raptures. 100 For Clarissa, henceforth, Hill has 
only praise, and that varied and fluent to the limit of his 
vocabulary ; and beyond that limit, he takes refuge in silent 
amazement: "You are — in short, I cannot tell what you 
are. I only know, I feel it!" 101 

Richardson's sufferings were now caused by other 
friends, who wished the novel to end happily. With the 
present of the sixth and seventh volumes, he writes : ' ' These 
will show you, Sir, that I intend more than a Novel or Ro- 
mance by this Piece ; and that it is of the tragic kind. In 
short, that I thought my principal characters could not be 
rewarded by any happiness short of the heavenly. But 
how have I suffered by this from the cavils of some, from 
the Prayers of others, from the entreaties of many more, to 
make what is called a happy ending. Mr. Lyttleton, the 
late Mr. Thomson, Mr. Cibber, and Mr. Fielding have been 
among these." 102 Hill did not swell the chorus. Nor did 
his daughters make any rash effort at compliance, when 
Richardson, undeterred by former experiences, asked them 
to point out any lack of delicacy or female grace in Clarissa 
or Miss Howe ; he would not have even Miss Howe, in the 
height of her vivacity, indelicate. 103 The father of the 
young ladies replied for them : to hint that Clarissa lacked 
delicacy ! ' ' who alone could reinspire it through an unsexed 

100 Hill to Richardson, November 3 and November 26, 1747. 
ioi May 5, 1748. 

102 November 7, 1748. 

103 November 18, 1748. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 269 

ivorld!" XOi The family were hoping at this time soon to 
have the noble pleasure of attending the divine Clarissa to 
her "heavenly Period"; and on November 29, Hill "buried 
the dear girl" at three o'clock in the morning — after she 
had cost him tears enough to swim the volumes that excited 
them. "At this moment," he wrote, "I have three girls 
around me — Each a Separate Volume in her hand, and all 
their Eyes like a wet flower in April!" 105 

"When the Misses Hill had dried their eyes, they wrote 
to ask Richardson if there ever really were such "masked 
male Savages as Lovelace," and to compare the author's 
gradations to those of Nature from season to season: "You 
raised your Pamela from very humbly sweet, to very nobly 
elevated. And now, beginning with Clarissa where you 
left your other charmer, you have found a more than mortal 
Power to raise her also with a gradual Exaltation." 106 
Richardson was more pleased with Astraea and Minerva 
than he had recently been with their father. Can they 
believe, he asks, that many of their sex pity Lovelace and 
call Clarissa hard-hearted? Presently he is begging them 
to indicate his faults — their praise is making him vain: 
"From whom can I, in Matters of Delicacy, expect De- 
tection and Correction, if not from Ladies who have the 
Happiness of so dear and near a Relation to Mr. Hill?" 107 

The delicacy of the young ladies was notable when it ap- 
proved of Clarissa; for less obvious when it saw good in 
Tom Jones. Richardson's attitude towards his rival 
novelist, who had insulted him far more by achieving popu- 

104 November 25, 1748. 

105 They were more sociable than the Highmore family, who retired 
each to a separate apartment to read and weep at ease (Corres., I, cxi). 

loe December 13, 1748. 

107 Letters from Richardson, December 14, 1748, and January 6, 
1749. 



270 AARON HILL 

larity with a Tom Jones than by making his "lewd and 
ungenerous engraftment" upon Pamela, is distinctly petty 
and spiteful. The two men were temperamentally at oppo- 
site poles. Nor was it to the credit of most of Richardson's 
correspondents that they humored him in his jealousy. 
The Hill girls, for all their delicacy, proved to be excep- 
tions. "Dear Sir," wrote Richardson, July 12, 1749, 
"have you read Tom, J ones f ... I have found neither 
Leisure nor Inclination, yet, to read that Piece, and the 
less inclination as several good judges of my acquaintance 
condemn it and the general taste together. I could wish to 
know the Sentiments of your ladies upon it. If favourable, 
they would induce me to open the six volumes." Hill 
promised that the girls would oblige him in the matter: 
"They will certainly have sauciness enough to do it, being 
of late grown borrowing Customers to an Itinerary Book- 
seller's Shop, that rumbles, once a week, thro' Plaistow in 
a wheelbarrow, with Chaff enough, of Conscience! and 
sometimes a weightier Grain." 108 Within a week, Astraea 
and Minerva sent their joint sentiments: 109 

" Having with much ado got over some reluctance, that was 
bred by a familiar coarseness in the Title, we went thro' the 
whole six volumes; and found much (masqued) merit, in 'em 
all; a double merit, both of Head, and Heart. Had there been 
only that of the last sort, you love it, I am sure, too much to 
leave a Doubt of your resolving to examine it. . . . The author 
introduces all his Sections . . . with long runs of bantering 
Levity, which his good sense may suffer the effect of. It is true, 
he seems to wear this Lightness, as a grave Head sometimes wears 
a feather; which tho' he and Fashion may consider as an orna- 
ment, Reflection will condemn, as a Disguise and covering. Girls, 
perhaps, of an untittering Disposition, are improper Judges of 
what merit there may be in Lightness, when it endeavors rather 

los j u i y 20, 1749. 
109 July 27, 1749. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 271 

at ironic satire than encouragement of Folly. But tell us, 
Dear Sir, are we in the right, or no, when we presume to own it 
as our Notion, that however well meant such a Motive may have 
been, the execution of it must be found distasteful? For we 
can't help thinking that a mind framed right for Virtue courts 
and serves her with too much Respect, to join in throwing a 
Fool's Coat upon her. . . . Meanwhile, it is an honest pleasure, 
which we take in adding, that (exclusive of one wild, detached 
and independent Story of a Man of the Hill, that neither brings 
on anything, nor rose from anything that went before it) All the 
changefull windings of the author's fancy carry on a course of 
regular design; and end in an extremely moving close, where 
Lines that seemed to wander and run different ways, meet, All, 
in an instructive Centre. 

" The whole Piece consists of an inventive race of Disappoint- 
ments and Recoveries. It excites Curiosity, and holds it watchful. 
It has just and pointed Satire; but it is a partial satire, and 
confined too narrowly. It sacrifices to Authority and Interest. 
Its Events reward Sincerity, and punish and expose Hypocrisy; 
shew pity and benevolence in amiable Lights, and Avarice and 
Brutality in very despicable ones. In every Part it has 
Humanity for its Intention; in too many it seems wantoner than 
it was meant to be: It has bold shocking Pictures; and (I fear) 
not unresembling ones, in high Life and in low. And (to con- 
clude this too adventurous guess work from a pair of forward 
baggages) would, everywhere, . . . deserve to please, — if stript 
of what the Author thought himself most sure to please by." 

An excellent criticism, but not one to please Richardson. 
He replied that he had been prejudiced by the opinion of 
judicious friends against the coarse-titled Tom: "I was 
told, that it was a rambling Collection of waking Dreams, 
in which Probability was not observed; and that it has a 
very bad tendency. And I had Reason to think that the 
Author intended for his second View (his first, to fill his 
Pocket by accommodating it to the reigning Taste) in 
writing it, to whiten a vicious Character, and to make 



272 AARON HILL 

Morality bend to his practises." Why else did he make 
Tom a "kept Fellow, the lowest of all Fellows," and yet 
in love with a young creature who was "traipsing after 
him?" Why such a fond, foolish, insipid heroine? He 
does not know how to draw a delicate woman — he is not 
accustomed to their company. He knows the man and 
dislikes his principles, public and private. 110 

Reduced to tears by this letter, but not subdued, the two 
critics permitted their father to answer for them: "Un- 
fortunate Tom Jones! how sadly has he mortified Two 
sawcy correspondents of your making ! They are with me 
now, and bid me tell you, you have spoiled 'em both, for 
criticks. Shall I add, a Secret which they did not bid me 
tell you? They, both, fairly cried, that you should think 
it possible they could approve of anything, in any Work, 
that had an evil tendency, in any part or purpose of it. 
They maintain their point so far, however, as to be con- 
vinced, they say, that you will disapprove this over-rigid 
Judgment of those Friends, who could not find a thread of 
moral meaning, in Tom Jones, quite independent of the 
Levities they justly censure. And as soon as you have 
time to read him, for yourself, 'tis there, pert creatures, they 
will be bold enough to rest the matter." 111 

Richardson, distressed as he was to have given pain to 
the ladies, yet insists on their few adverse comments to 
justify himself : did they not say the merit was masqued ? 
and did they not make other fine reflections on the inad- 
visability of showing wisdom with a monkey's face? "I 
imagined, I said, that the censurers of Tom Jones were 
too severe; and why? Because ladies of superior delicacy 
were so good as to overlook the passages unworthy of their 
regard, and find a good intention in the rest. ... I said, 

no August 4, 1749. 
in August 11, 1749. 



HILL AND RICHARDSON 273 

that, knowing the man, I had the more suspicion ; for he is 
a very indelicate, a very impetuous, an unyielding spirited 
man, and is capable of forming a morality to his practise." 
And the ladies said, too, that it had shocking pictures; 
"could I have imagined, Sir, that I, in following this clue, 
and in writing freely what those censurers have said, who 
were disgusted with these faults, and looked upon them in 
a light too strong, without considering the rest with that 
candour which your ladies have laudably manifested, for 
what must therefore be praiseworthy in it, or even for ex- 
pressing my own disgust on several of the passages which I 
had read, should have written so as to have affected the 
dear ladies?" 112 The ladies must have been very well 
aware by this time of the nature of their offense. 

This marks the close of the correspondence with Hill. 
He was seriously ill during the greater part of the year, and 
died on February 8, 1750, "at the instant of the earth- 
quake." 113 On February 10, Richardson wrote to his 
friend Skelton : 114 ' ' I have just lost my dear and excellent- 
hearted friend, Mr. Hill, author of Gideon. I was present 
at some of his last scenes; my nerves can witness that I 
was. I am endeavoring to find opportunities to show my 
regard to his memory, by my good offices to three excellent 

112 August 18, 1749. 

us London Magazine, February, 1750, 56. 

in Corres., V., 199. From the profuse expressions of gratitude in 
the letters of Hill's brother and of his daughters Astraea and 
Urania, Eichardson must have carried out his generous intentions, 
probably helping in the publication of Hill's works. Urania, "the 
managing sister of the three," who inherited her father's epistolary 
style more completely than her sisters, kept up a correspondence with 
Eichardson for eight years, — until he criticized for indelicacy a 
novel she submitted to him. Her hurt rejoinder led him to comment 
despairingly on the margin of her letter: "I will only say, I truly 
meant, service, not criticism. Who but the Lady was to see what I 
wrote?" 
19 



274 AAEON HILL 

daughters, who, for their filial piety, merit all praise, and 
for their other merits, deserve to be the care of all who 
know them." Hill's death occurred the day before a 
benefit performance of Merope, which had been commanded 
— probably through Mallet's influence — by the Prince of 
"Wales. There is a touch of irony in the fact that the man 
who had so generously promoted many benefit performances 
for his distressed friends should have needed such aid him- 
self in the last days of his life, and should have died before 
he could receive it. He was buried near his wife, in the 
cloisters of Westminster Abbey. 



CHAPTER VIII 



CONCLUSION 



It would be rash to claim that the preceding chapters 
have dealt with all of Hill's activities; some of them may 
have left no traces that can be discovered now. There is 
a hint in a scurrilous attack on the Prompter in Fog's 
Weekly Journal (December 7, 1734) that Hill "plied at 
Cato's elbow, in the South Sea days"; it may mean that 
he wrote anonymously in the London Journal or the British 
Journal, which published Cato's letters against the South 
Sea Company. If he did, then he was engaged to some 
extent in political controversy — the one form of activity he 
seemed to care little about. Once he himself referred to 
all he had seen in the armies of three nations. Most prob- 
ably these observations were made during his early tours, 
though he may have found, before he began to write poetry 
in London, a few odd months to serve a campaign or two. 

The discovery of some new enterprise would arouse no 
astonishment in one who reflects upon the versatility that 
had revealed Hill before the age of thirty as traveller, 
tutor, secretary, poet, translator, historian, dramatist, stage 
manager, opera librettist, and commercial projector. In 
some of these roles he appeared only once. But a pro- 
jector, in practise and in theory, he remained to the end of 
his life — the enterprising agent of the York Buildings 
Company, the dreamer of a Paradise in America, the pro- 
prietor of the Plaistow vineyards. A theatrical expert he 
was always — a keen observer of changing conditions, a 
student of the art of acting, a caustic critic of the managers, 
and a dramatist, who won with his translations of Voltaire 
275 



276 AARON HILL 

a success that had been denied to his original work. He 
was a poet — so far as his talents permitted him to be — to 
the last ; and in that role he came to know and to influence 
the careers of younger writers; and the most successful of 
his poems brought him the mixed reward of a gold medal 
from a Czar and a literary quarrel with Pope. His many 
acts of kindness were in a manner repaid — not by their 
recipients, but by the loyal friendship of Richardson. This 
versatility, and the touch of romantic ardor in his nature, 
which had sent him off as a boy of fifteen alone to Turkey, 
explain in some measure the attraction he had for his con- 
temporaries and the esteem in which he was held. His 
friends saw him engaged in many fields; if some of them 
were a little uncertain of his eminence in that field which 
they knew best, they were probably willing to believe him 
greater in another of which they knew little. When 
Colonel Horsey recovered from the transports of his first 
contemplation of Scotch timber, he may have reflected that 
an imagination, which was not an unmixed blessing to a 
projector, must be an asset of great value to a poet; and if 
Savage or Thomson secretly entertained any doubts of 
their loved Hillarius's poetic supremacy, they could not 
resist the impression of the coach and six bearing the 
projector in triumph to Scotland. Praise directed at a 
man of so many talents must find its mark somewhere. 

When, three years after Hill's death, his Works were 
published in four volumes, his reputation was still great 
enough to attract over fifteen hundred subscribers; but 
seven years later, only one-fourth that number could be 
persuaded to subscribe to his Dramatic Works. The course 
of his fame was steadily downward as the impression of his 
vigorous personality faded away, and only his works were 
left to speak for him. They spoke very badly. Although, 
seventy years after his death, selections were still made 



CONCLUSION 277 

from his poetry and his plays for the volumes of the 
British poets and the British drama, these volumes them- 
selves are now little read. But his name and the record of 
his activities could not perish so completely as his poems. 
Those who have written in recent years of Richardson and 
Fielding, of Pope and Thomson and Savage, have found 
Hill in their path, not to be ignored ; the chronicler of the 
York Buildings Company owed to him some of his most 
entertaining pages; the student of the legal aspects of stage 
history discovered in the Prompter the keenest apprecia- 
tion of the problem of regulation. And none of those who 
mention him find it possible to be merely perfunctory. 
They grow cheerful and witty, even in their very exaggera- 
tion of his power to bore ; or in soberer mood, they express 
a curiosity about other aspects of his life and character 
than those they touch upon. They all acknowledge the 
generosity and kindliness of his nature, his humanity and 
politeness, as Dr. Johnson has it, — a tribute that can be 
paid without reserve to very few of the greater men of his 
time. 

This reaction of the modern writer is in itself evidence of 
the interest and vigor of Hill's personality. His faults — 
his vanity, self-confidence, and extravagance — are obvious 
enough ; they brought their own punishment in leading him 
to attempt what he could not perform, and to make claims 
for his work that could have been satisfied only by a trans- 
cendent genius. But though he did habitually overestimate 
the talents and virtues of himself and of his friends, he had 
flashes of keen insight into character; he had imagination, 
evident in his projects, if not in his writings ; and there is 
even now and then a gleam of poetry in his verse and his 
prose. Had his faculties been better balanced, had he been 
slightly more modest in his own estimation of his talents, 
he might have attained secure eminence in one of the many 



278 AARON HILL 

fields of his activity. As it is, one cannot but respect in 
him qualities admirable in themselves, whether or not they 
bring success to their possessor, — the tireless energy that 
cannot endure to rust in idleness, the courage that looks 
upon failure only as an incentive to further effort. Hill in 
spirit belongs to the band of those 

" Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

LIST OF HILL'S WEITINGS: 

1707. Camillus. A Poem, Humbly inscrib'd to the Right Hon- 

orable Charles, Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth. 
By Aaron Hill, Gent. London, 1707. 

1708. The Invasion: A Poem to the Queen. By Mr. Hill. 

London, 1708. 

The celebrated Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses, for the 
Armour of Achilles, in the 13th Book of Ovid's Meta- 
morphoses. Essay'd in English Verse by Mr. Tate, 
Poet Laureat; and Aaron Hill, Gent. London, 1708. 

1709. A full and just Account of the Present State of the 

Ottoman Empire in all its Branches: with the Govern- 
ment, and Policy, Religion, Customs, and Way of 
Living of the Turks, in General. Faithfully related 
from a Serious Observation, taken in many Years 
Travels thro' those Countries. By Aaron Hill, Gent. 
London, 1709. 

Second edition, with editions [sic]. London, 1710. 

Another edition. By A. H. London, 1733. 

1710. Elf rid, or the Fair Inconstant. A Tragedy, as it is acted 

at the Theatre Royal by her Majesty's Servants. To 
which is added, The Walking Statue, or the Devil in 
the Wine Cellar. A Farce. By Mr. Hill. London, 
1710. 

Another edition of The Walking Statue. London, 
1780? 

1711. Rinaldo, an Opera, as it is performed at the Queen's 

Theatre in London. London, 1711. 
1714. Dedication of the Beech-Tree. To the most honourable 
the Earl of Oxford, Lord High Treasurer of Great 
Britain. Occasioned by the late discovery of making 
Oil from the fruit of that Tree. By Aaron Hill, Esq. 
London, 1714. 

(Advertised in the Post Boy, April 17-20, 1714.) 
279 



280 AARON HILL 

An impartial account of the nature, benefit and 
design, of a new discovery and undertaking, to make a 
pure, sweet, and wholesome Oil, from the Fruit of the 
Beech Tree. By authority of her Majesty's Royal 
Letters Patents, under the great seal of Great Britain. 
With particular answers to every Objection, which has 
been made, or may reasonably be conceived against it. 
And proposals for raising a stock not exceeding twenty 
thousand pounds: wherein every hundred pounds ad- 
vanced, will entitle to an annuity for fourteen years, of 
fifty pounds per annum, and for a less sum propor- 
tionably, upon a good and solid security. London, 1714. 

Proposals for raising a Stock of one hundred thou- 
sand pounds; for laying up great quantities of Beech 
Mast for two years, at an Interest of Forty-Five 
Pounds per cent, per Annum, to the Subscribers, and 
upon a Security whereby they will always have in 
their own Hands, above Ten Times the Value of the 
Sum, they Contribute. To which is added, a particular 
account of the nature, benefit, and design of the under- 
taking. London, 1714. 

1715. An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Beech-Oil 

Invention, and All the Steps which have been taken in 
that Affair, from the first discovery to the present time, 
as also what is further designed in that Undertaking. 
London, 1715. 

1716. An impartial state of the case between the Patentee, 

Annuitants, and Sharers, in the Beech-Oil Company. 
Published by the Patentee as well in Vindication of his 
own Measures, as for the General Satisfaction of all 
the concem'd Parties. (A. H.) London, 1716. 

The Fatal Vision : or, The Fall of Siam. A Tragedy : 
as it is acted at the New Theatre in Lincoln' s-Inn-Fi elds, 
1716. London. [1716.] 
1718. Four Essays: viz. 

1. On making China Ware in England, as good as 
ever was brought from India. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 281 

2. On a method for furnishing Coals at a Third Part 
of the Price they are usually sold at. 

3. On the Repairing of Dagenham, or other Breaches. 

4. On our English Grapes, proving that they will make 
the best of Wines. 

By a Society of Gentlemen. For the Universal Benefit 
of the People of England. Adorned with Four Beauti- 
ful Cutts. London, 1718. 

(A MS. note in the British Museum copy reads: 
" The Essays were first publisht under this title : Essays, 
for the month of December, 1716, to be continued 
monthly. By a Society of Gentlemen. London, for 
J. Roberts, 1716.") 

The Northern-Star. A Poem. Written by Mr. Hill. 
London, 1718. 

Second edition. The Northern-Star: a poem on the 
great and glorious actions of the present Czar of Russia : 
English and Latin. London, 1724. 

(The dedication is signed by Gilbert Hill, the author 
of the translation. The preface is by Aaron Hill.) 

Third edition. The Northern Star. A Poem. Sacred 
to the name and memory of the Immortal Czar of 
Russia. London, 1725. 

Fifth edition. The Northern Star: A Poem. Orig- 
inally publish'd in the Life-time of Peter Alexiovitz, 
Great Czar of Russia. The fifth edition, revised and 
corrected by the Author. London, 1739. 

(I have not found any fourth edition.) 
1720. The Creation. A Pindaric illustration of a Poem, orig- 
inally written by Moses, on that Subject. With a 
preface to Mr. Pope, concerning the sublimity of the 
Ancient Hebrew Poetry, and a material and obvious 
Defect in the English. 

(From an advertisement published in the Post Boy, 
July 30, 1720. The poem is printed in Hill's Works, 
1753, IV, 189. The first edition is not in the libraries 
to which I have had access.) 



282 AARON HILL 

1721. The Judgement Day. A Poem. By Aaron Hill, Esq. 
The second edition. London. [1721?] 

(The poem is advertised as "this day published," in 
the Post Boy, March 7-9, 1720-1721. The preface in 
the so-called second edition is dated March 1, 1720- 
1721. I have not seen a first edition.) 

The Fatal Extravagance, a Tragedy, in a manner 
wholly new: As it is acted at the Theatre in Lincoln' s- 
Inn-Fields, with great applause. 

(From an advertisement in the Post Boy, April 22- 
25, 1721— "on Thursday will be published." A later 
advertisement in the same paper for May 2 adds 
" written by Mr. Mitchel." I have not found this 
edition.) 

Genest notes a Dublin edition of 1721, in two acts, 
and another of 1726. 

Fourth edition. The Fatal Extravagance: a Tragedy 
presented at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln' s-lnn-Fields, 
in one act; but in this Fourth edition improved into 
Five Acts, by the Addition of several new characters 
and episodical Incidents. By Joseph Mitchell. London, 
1726. 

Other London editions of 1730 and 1753. 

The Prodigal: a Dramatic piece [altered from the 
Fatal Extravagance of J. Mitchell, or rather A. H.]. 
London, 1794. 
1723. King Henry the Fifth, or the Conquest of France by the 
English. A Tragedy. As acted at the Theatre Boyal 
in Drury Lane. London, 1723. 

(Advertised in the Daily C our ant, Dec. 10, 1723.) 

Another edition. London, 1759. 

Another edition. London, 1765. 
1724-1725. The Plain Dealer. (The British Museum copy is 
imperfect, lacking nos. 28, 29, 31, 42, 46, 53, 91-98, 
102-117.) 

The Plain Dealer: Being Select Essays on several 
curious subjects, relating to Friendship, Love, and Gal- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 283 

lantry, Marriage, Morality, Mercantile Affairs, Paint- 
ing, History, Poetry, and Other Branches of Polite 
Literature. Published originally in the Year 1724, and 
now first collected into Two Volumes. London, 1730. 

Second edition. London, 1734. (This contains the 
dedication by William Bond to Lord Hervey. The 
frontispiece pictures a gentleman seated at a table, pen 
in hand, listening to the discourse of a lady with lux- 
uriant hair; another lady, helmeted and draped, spear 
in hand, points to a painting on the wall, which depicts 
some sort of aerial battle directed by still a third lady; 
the devil is seated in meditation at the gentleman's feet.) 

1730. The progress of wit : a caveat. For the use of an eminent 

writer. By a fellow of All-Souls. To which is prefixed, 
an explanatory discourse to the reader. By Gamaliel 
Gunson, professor of Physic and Astrology. London, 
1730. 

1731. Advice to the Poets. A Poem. To which is prefixed, an 

Epistle dedicatory to the few Great Spirits of Great 
Britain. Written by Mr. Hill. London, 1731. 

(Advertised in the Daily Journal of March 23.) 

Athelwold: a Tragedy. As it is acted at the Theatre- 
Royal in Drury-Lane, by his Majesty's Servants. Lon- 
don, 1731. 

Second edition. London, 1732. 

Another edition. Dublin, 1732. 

Another edition. London, 1760. 
1734-1736. The Prompter. (The British Museum copy lacks 
nos. 138 and 158; that in the Library of Yale Univer- 
sity lacks nos. 24, 84, 93, 116, 138, 152.) 
1736. The Tragedy of Zara, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal 
in Drury-Lane. London, 1736. 

Other separate London editions in 1736, 1752, 1763, 
1778, 1791, 1803. 

Dublin editions of 1737 and 1762. 

Published also in Bell's British Theatre, 1 (17^6), 
17 (1797); English Theatre, 10 (1776); Inchbald's 



284 AARON HILL 

British Theatre, 7 (1808) ; Modern British Drama, 2 
(1811); Dibdin's London Theatre, 19 (1814-1818); 
London Stage, 4 (1824-1827) ; Inchbald's British 
Theatre, 6 (1824); British Drama, 2 (1824); Cumber- 
land's British Drama, 13; British Drama, 2 (Phila- 
delphia, 1850). 

Alzira, a Tragedy, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal 
in Lincoln' s-Inn-Fields. London, 1736. 

Other separate London editions in 1744, 1779, 1791. 

An Edinburgh edition of 1755. (Select Collection 
of English Plays, vol. 2.) 

Published also in Bell's British Theatre, 10 (1777), 
7 (1797) ; and British Drama, 2 (1824). 

1737. The Tears of the Muses: in a Conference between Prince 

Germanicus and a Male-content Party. London, 1737. 
(Dedicated to the Society for the Encouragement of 
Learning. ) 

1738. Enquiry into the Merit of Assassination: with a View to 

the character of Caesar; and his designs on the Roman 
Republic. London, 1738. 

1743. The Fanciad: an heroic Poem in Six cantos. To his 

Grace the Duke of Marlborough, on the Turn of his 
Genius to Arms. London, 1743. 

1744. The Impartial. An address without flattery. Being a 

poet's free thoughts on the situation of our public 
affairs anno 1744. London, 1744. 

(This called forth in the same year a reply from 
" Antiquae," entitled A Poet's Impartial Reply to a 
Poem entitled The Impartial; " I have not attempted," 
he says in the preface, " to imitate your lofty style ; and 
though our sentiments pretty nearly agree, yet I have 
only given you a sketch of mine in a different light.") 
1746. The Art of Acting. Deriving rules from a new principle 
for touching the passions in a natural manner. Part I. 
London, 1746. 

Free Thoughts on Faith: or, the Religion of Reason. 
A Poem. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 285 

(From an advertisement in the Gentleman's Magazine 
for July, 1746. The poem is printed in Hill's Works, 
1753, IV, 217. I have not seen this separate edition.) 

1749. Gideon, or the Patriot. An Epic Poem in Twelve Books. 
Upon a Hebrew Plan. In honour of the two chief 
Virtues of a people: Intrepidity in Foreign War, and 
spirit of domestic Liberty. With miscellaneous Notes, 
and large reflections upon different Subjects: Critical, 
Historical, Political, Geographic, Military, and Com- 
mercial. {By A. H.) London, 1749. 

Merope: a Tragedy. Acted at the Theatre-Royal in 
Drury-Lane, by his Majesty's Servants. By Aaron Hill, 
Esq. London, 1749. 

Other separate London editions in 1753, 1758, 1777, 
1786, 1803. 

An Edinburgh edition of 1755. 

Published also in Bell's British Theatre, 10 (1776), 
23 (1797) ; and the English Theatre, 4 (1776). 

1751. A Collection of Letters never before printed: written by 
Alexander Pope, Esq; and other ingenious Gentlemen, 
to the late Aaron Hill, Esq. London, 1751. 

1753. The Works of the Late Aaron Hill, Esq; in four volumes. 
Consisting of Letters on Various Subjects, and of 
Original Poems, Moral and Facetious. With an Essay 
on the Art of Acting. Printed for the Benefit of the 
Family. London, 1753. 

(The first two volumes contain the letters and the last 
two the poems. Many of the poems have already been 
noted in earlier editions. The most important are the 
following: The Reconciliation, To Mr. James Thomson, 
St. Matthew, Chapters V, VI, VII, Bellaria at her Spin- 
net, An Ode on Occasion of Mr. Handel's great Te Deum, 
The Dream, The Northern Star, The Picture of Love, 
Advice to the Poets, The Impartial, A Dialogue between 
Damon and Philemon, To the Unknown Author of the 
Beautiful New Piece called Pamela, The Progress of 
Wit, The Art of Acting, and The Dedication of the Beech- 



286 AARON HILL 

Tree (all in Volume III) ; Verses made for Mr. S-v-ge, 
On Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's bringing with her out 
of Turkey the Art of Inoculating the Smallpox, To the 
Editor of Clarissa, The Actor's Epitome, The Muse to 
the Writer — a Translation from the French of DuBartas, 
The 104th Psalm, The Tears of the Muses, The Creation, 
Camillus, Free Thoughts upon Faith, Sareph and Hamar 
— an Episode from Gideon, The Judgement-Day, Cleon 
to Lycidas, The Excursion of Fancy — a Pindaric Ode, 
and Amoris Pictura (in Volume IV). There are also 
many short poems, — epigrams and love poems; and 
many prologues and epilogues. The prose Essay on the 
Art of Acting is printed at the end of Volume IV.) 
Second edition. London, 1754. 

1754. The Roman Revenge, a Tragedy. 2nd edition. London, 
1754. 

1758. The Insolvent, or Filial Piety, a Tragedy. London, 1758. 

1760. The Dramatic Works of Aaron Hill, Esq. In two volumes. 
London, 1760. Contents: Life of the Author, Elf rid, 
Walking Statue, Rinaldo, Fatal Vision, King Henry V, 
Fatal Extravagance, Merlin in Love, Athelwold, Muses 
in Mourning, Zara, Snake in the Grass, Alzira, Saul, 
Daraxes, Merope, Roman Revenge, Insolvent or Filial 
Piety, Love Letters. 

Most of these plays have been discussed in the text. 
The Muses in Mourning is a short opera, with Apollo, 
the Muses, and the Geniuses of Spain, France, Holland, 
and England, as the characters. Merlin in Love is a 
pantomime opera, in which Harlequin and Columbine 
take part. Saul is a tragedy, of which the first act only 
was completed. Daraxes is a pastoral opera, of two acts : 
Daraxes, an Indian general, invades a peaceful com- 
munity of shepherds and shepherdesses, in his flight from 
a Persian foe. " Amorous and gallant scenes " between 
Daraxes and the shepherdesses are interrupted by the 
arrival of the Persian soldiers. After much conversa- 
tion, Daraxes discovers his lost father in the Persian 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 287 

general. The opera concludes with marriages and a 
shepherds' dance. It would be interesting to the student 
of the pastoral to know the date of this effort of Hill's. 
It may have been written and refused by the managers 
about the time the first act was printed in the Prompter 
(January 23, 1736). 
1821. The Actor, or Guide to the Stage : exemplifying the whole 
art of Acting; in which the Dramatic Passions are 
defined, analyzed, and made easy of Acquirement. The 
whole interspersed with Select and Striking Examples 
from the most popular modern pieces. London, 1821. 
(An arrangement of Aaron Hill's prose essay.) 
There are selections from Hill's poetry in the following: 
The British Poets, volume 8, Edinburgh, 1794. 
Southey's Specimens, Volume II, 1807. 
S. J. Pratt's Cabinet of Poetry, volume 3, London, 
1808. 

Park's British Poets, volume 45, London, 1808. 
British Poets, volume 60, Chiswick, 1822. 
For Hill's correspondence see also Elwin and Courthope's 
edition of Pope, volume X, and Mrs. Barbauld's edition of 
Richardson's Correspondence, I, 1-132. The correspondence in 
the Forster MSS. at the Victoria and Albert Museum at South 
Kensington is contained in Folio XIII (2), Folio XIV (1), and 
Folio XV. Hill's letters are chiefly in Folio XIII, and those 
of Urania Johnson in Folio XIV. The letter from the Hill girls 
about Tom Jones is in Folio XV. 

Works ascribed to Hill: 

The Works of Lucian, translated from the Greek by several 
eminent hands. London, 1711. (The eminent hands are Dryden 
T. Feme, W. Moyle, Sir H. Sheere, A. Baden, Sprag, Hill, 
S. Atkinson, H. Blount, Ayloffe, J. Philips, L. Eachard, C. 
Eachard, Savage, J. Digby, Hare, J. Washington, N. Tate, Sir 
J. Tyrell, C. Blount, T. Brown, J. Drake, S. Cobb, Gildon, 
Cashem, Vernon. The Tyrant Killer (Vol. II, 443-462), and 
Dipsas (Vol. II, 463-469), are by Mr. Hill. The style of these 



288 AARON HILL 

short prose selections is simple and not at all suggestive of Hill's, 
though he may possibly be the translator. More probably, the 
" Mr. Hill " concerned in the Original Poems (see infra) is the 
"Mr. Hill" of these translations.) 

The Book of Ecclesiastes paraphrased; a divine poem; by A. 
Hill. Newcastle, 1712. (Ascribed in the catalogue of the 
Bodleian Library to Aaron Hill. It is the work of a minister — 
the author declares in the preface that he prefers the character 
of a preacher to that of a poet. The style is very prosaic, and 
quite different from that of Hill's paraphrases.) 

Original Poems and Translations. By Mr. Hill, Mr. Eusden, 
Mr. Broome, Dr. King, etc. Never before printed. London, 
1714. (Ascribed with a question in the British Museum cata- 
logue to Aaron Hill. The poem by Mr. Hill (pp. 8-10) is 
On the Death of Vulcan, of sordid memory, an old Servant at 
Trinity College, Cambridge. The poem exhibits an intimate 
knowledge of Trinity College customs; it has no marks of Hill's 
style; and he had, so far as I know, no connection with Trinity 
College; his brother was at Clare Hall five years earlier. On the 
last page of the pamphlet, among the advertisements, under 
Musae Britannieae, is Rationes Boni et Mali sunt eternae et 
immutdbiles. Per T. Hill, e. Col. Trin. Soc. This Thomas Hill 
was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the author (see 
B. M. catalogue) of Nundinae Sturbrigienses, 1702; adjiciuntur 
duo alia poemata, London, 1709.) 
Biographies and principal biographical notices of Hill: 

The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland. By Mr. 
Cibber and other hands. London, 1753. Volume V, pp. 252- 
276. 

(Note on page 252 — " This was sent us by an unknown hand.") 

The Life of Aaron Hill, Esq. By I. K. In the Dramatic 
Works of Aaron Hill, I, i-xx. London, 1760. 

Biographia Britannica: or, the Lives of the Most Eminent 
Persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland . . . 
to which are added, a Supplement and Appendix, etc. 6 volumes. 
London, 1766. Supplement, pp. 97-98. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 289 

Davies, Thomas: Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, etc. 
London, 1780. Volume I, chapter XIII. 

British Poets, volume VIII. Edinburgh, 1794. Life of Hill 
by R. Anderson. 

Biographia Dramatica: or, a Companion to the Playhouse, etc. 
(Carried to the year 1764 by D. E. Baker; continued to 1782 by 
Isaac Reed, and to 1811 by Stephen Jones.) 3 volumes. Lon- 
don, 1812. Volume I, Part I, p. 334 f. 

British Poets, volume 60. Chiswick, 1822. Life of Hill by 
R. A. Davenport. 

Article by Leslie Stephen in the Dictionary of National 
Biography. 

The chief authorities used in the chapters on the stage are the 
following: 

Baker, David Erskine: The Companion to the Playhouse, or 
an Historical Account of all the Dramatic Writers and their 
Works. . . . From the Commencement of our Theatrical Exhibi- 
tions down to the present year 1764, etc. 2 volumes. London, 
1764. 

Baker, H. Barton: The London Stage: its History and Tradi- 
tions from 1576 to 1903. 2 volumes. London, 1904. 

Burney, Charles : A General History of Music from the Earliest 
Ages to the Present Period. London, 1789. (Volume IV.) 

Cibber, Colley: An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, 
Comedian, and late Patentee of the Theatre-Boyal, etc. Edited 
with notes by R. W. Lowe. 2 volumes. London, 1889. 

Cooke, William: Memoirs of Charles Macklin, Comedian, with 
the Dramatic Characters, Manners, Anecdotes, etc., of the Age 
in which he lived, etc. 2nd edition. London, 1806. 

Davies, Thomas: Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, inter- 
spersed with Characters and Anecdotes of his theatrical Contem- 
poraries, etc. 2 volumes. London, 1780. 

Dibdin, C. : History of the Stage. 5 volumes. London 
(1800?). 

Fitzgerald, Percy H. : A New History of the English Stage 
from the Restoration to the Liberty of the Theatres, etc. 2 vol- 
umes. London, 1882. 
20 



290 AAEON HILL 

Genest, John: Some Account of the English Stage, from the 
Restoration in 1660 to 1830. 10 volumes. Bath, 1832. (Vol- 
umes II, m, IV.) 

Lounsbury, Thomas R. : Shakespeare and Voltaire. New York, 
1902. 

Nicholson, Watson : The Struggle for a Free Stage in London. 
Boston and New York, 1906. 

A Proposal for the better Regulation of the Stage, with some 
Remarks on the State of the Theatres among the Ancient Greeks 
and Romans. London, 1732. 

Ralph, James: The Taste of the Town, or a guide to all Pub- 
lick Diversions. London, 1731. 

A Seasonable Examination of the pleas and pretensions of 
the proprietors of, and subscribers to, playhouses erected in 
defiance of the royal license, with some brief Observations on the 
printed case of the Players belonging to Drury-Lane and Covent 
Garden Theatres. London, 1735. 

Victor, Benjamin : The History of the Theatres of London and 
Dublin from the year 1730 to the present Time, etc. 2 volumes. 
London, 1761. 



INDEX 



Account of the Bise and Progress 

of the Beech Oil Invention, An, 

30, 38-40, 280. 
Addison, Joseph, 87, 92, 153, 155, 

156. 
Advice to the Poets, 15, 218-219, 

283. 
Alatamaha (river), 50, 55n., 75. 
Almahide, 88. 

Alsira, 145-147, 241, 250, 284. 
Ames, J. G., The Eng. Lit. Per. of 

Morals and Manners, 17n. 
Arbuthnot, Dr., 233, 234. 
Arnall, W., 153. 
Arsinoe, 87. 
Art of Acting, The, 130, 247, 

257n., 284. 
Astell, Mary, 159n. 
Athelwold, 114-118, 221, 222, 224, 

226n., 228, 283. 
Athenian Gazette, The, 17. 
Athenian Mercury, The, 17. 
Attorney-General, the, 53, 54. 
Aurengezebe, 80. 
Azilia, Margravate of, 50-56, 57, 

58. 

Barnard, Sir John, 137, 140. 
Barnstaple Grammar School, 2. 
Barnwell, Col. John, 57. 
Bathurst, Lord, 116. 
Bee, The, 228 and n. 
Beech-Oil Stock Company, 33, 35- 

36, 37, 38-39, 40-42, 43. 
Beggar's Opera, 113. 
Berkeley, George, 74, 243. 



Bermudas, 48-49, 74. 

Betterton, Thomas, 76, 77, 78, 

80n., 86. 
Biekerstaff (actor), 83, 84. 
Billingsley, Case, 60 and n. 
Biographia Dramatica, 82. 
Blackmore, Sir Bichard, 167n. 
Blinman, Dr. J., 206n. 
Board of Trade, 48, 54. 
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, vis- 
count, 15n., 153, 155, 235, 237. 
Bond, William, 25n., 141, 142, 156, 

157, 160, 189, 205n. 
Booth, Barton, 2, 80, 83, 84, 95, 

96 and n., 104, 107-109, 113, 

118, 120, 126-127. 
Bowman, Walter, 186. 
Bradley, James, 60. 
Brett, Col., 78. 
British Apollo, The, 16-18, 21 and 

n., 83 and n., 91, 155. 
British Journal, The, 189n., 275. 
Budgell, Eustace, 228, 230. 
Burlington, Lord, 116. 
Burney 's Hist . of Music, 87 and n. 
Burt, Capt. Edward, 62-63, 64, 

68 and n. 
Busby, Dr., 2. 

Caesar (Hill's play), see The 

Soman Bevenge. 
Caesar (character of), 147, 148, 

235. 
Cambridge Hist, of Eng. Lit., 4n. 
Camilla, 87. 
Camillus, 9, 13, 279. 



291 



292 



Campbell, Harry, 255-257. 
Carolina, 49, 50, 53. See also 

under Azilia. 
Carteret, John, Earl of Granville, 

2, 50. 
Cato, 95, 149n. 
Caveat, The. See The Progress of 

Wit. 
Celebrated Speeches of Ajax and 

Ulysses, The, 20-21, 279. 
Censor, The, 155. 
Chandos, Duke of, 163n., 222, 223, 

224. 
Charitable Corporation for the 

Eelief of the Industrious Poor, 

71-72. 
Charles II, 77. 
Cheats of Scapin, The, 110. 
Chesterfield, Earl of, 74. 
Chinaware, 44-45, 59. 
Cibber, Colley, 78, 79n., 86, 94, 

95, 96, 113, 118, 120, 126, 146, 

263, 268. 
Cibber, Susanna Maria, 142. 
Cibber, Theophilus, 118-119, 142n., 

150n. 
Cibber 's Lives (quoted), 3, 9-10, 

11, 14, 51, 66, 67, 68, 98, 156, 

166n., 170, etc. 
Citizen, The, 73 and n. 
Clarissa Harlowe, 240, 243, 251, 

256n., 260-269. 
"Clio," 172, 185, 187, 188-192, 

198. 
Coals (project for the manufacture 

of), 45-46, 59. 
Cobbett 's Parliamentary Hist., 

60n. 
Collections of the Hist. Soc. of 

South Carolina, 53n., 58n., 62n., 

71n. 



Collier, Wm, 79, 80, 83, 86 and n., 

94, 95. 
Commentator, The, 61. 
Commissioners for Trade, 53. 
Compton, Sir Spencer, 195-196. 
Concanen, Matthew, 185, 187. 
Congreve, Wm., 78, 82, 95, 164. 
Cooke, Charles, 53. 
Cooke, Thomas, 185. 
Corneille, Pierre, 151. 
Court Tales, 42n. 
Courthope, W. J. (quoted), 202, 

207, 212, 218, 220. 
Covent Garden Theatre, 77. 
Craftsman, The, 155. 
Creation, The, 165n., 171n., 204, 

205, 281. 
Cunningham's Growth of Eng. 

Industry and Commerce, 28, 

45n., 63n. 
Cupid and Bacchus, 110. 

Dagenham Breach (repair of), 

46 and n. 
Daily Courant, The, 21n. 
Daily Journal, The, 208, 229. 
Daily Post, The, 64n. 
Daraxes, 134, 286-287. 
Davenant, Sir William, 77. 
Davies, Thomas (quoted), 111-112, 

115, 126, 131 and n., 135n., 142, 

143, 147, 220n. 
Dedication of the Beech Tree, The, 

34-35, 46, 63, 279. 
Defoe, Daniel, 12n., 25n., 29, 31n., 

155. 
Dennis, John, 95, 163n., 164-169, 

207, 227. 
Description of the Golden Islands, 

54n., 56-57. 
Dibdin's Stage (quoted), 94. 



293 



Discourse concerning the Design' d 

Establishment of a New Colony 

to the South of Carolina, 51-52. 
Dobson, Austin, 240n., 241. 
Doctor, The, 156. 
Doctor Faustus, 110. 
Dodington, Bubb, 198. 
Dogget (actor), 94. 
Dramatic Poetaster, The, 134n. 
Drury-Lane Theatre, 77, 78, 80, 

86, 100, 104, 110, 111, 114, 119, 

122, 151, 162. 
Dryden, John, 82, 95, 228n. 
Dunciad, The, 113 and n., 208-209, 

211, 212, 214, 217, 218, 219, 220, 

239. 
Dunton, John, 17. 
Dyer, John, 32n., 166n., 172, 185, 

187, 188n., 189, 190. 

Edwards, Thomas, 260n. 

Elfrid, 80-81, 90n., 114, 279. 

Ellis, Mr., 118, 120. 

Elson, Arthur, his Hist, of Opera 
quoted, 89. 

Englishman, The, 35n., 155. 

Essay on Man, 236, 237, 238. 

Essay on Propriety and Impro- 
priety, etc., 215, 218, 232, 234 
and n., 237. 

Etearco, 88. 

Examiner, The, 34n., 35n., 155. 

Fair Quaker of Deal, The, 82. 
Fanciad, The, 15n., 247-248, 250n., 

260, 284. 
Farquhar, George, 82, 95. 
Fatal Dowry, The (Massinger's 

play), 150n. 
Fatal Extravagance, The, 97-100, 

170, 171n., 282. 
Fatal Vision, The, 95-97, 164, 280. 



Female Tatler, The, 18. 

Fielding, General, 241. 

Fielding, Henry, 101, 111, 125, 133, 

134 and n., 135, 139, 268, 269, 

270-271, 272, 273, 277. 
Fitzgerald, Percy H., his New 

Hist, of the Eng. Stage quoted, 

83-85, lOln. 
Fleetwood, John, 119, 122, 135-136. 
Fog's Journal, 211n., 275. 
Forster MS., 240, 287; quoted, 2, 

48, 73, 122, etc. 
Four Essays, 43, 280-281. 
Fowke, Martha. See "Clio." 
Free Thinker, The, 156. 

Garrick, David, 76, 101, 115, 131, 

149n., 151. 
Gay, John, 2, 16, 18, 74, 116. 
Gazetteer, The, 239. 
Gentleman's Magazine (quoted), 

130n., 132n., 133n., 135n., 141, 

167, 184. 
George I, 95, 202. 
George Barnwell, 113. 
Georgia, 50, 52n., 58, 124 and n. 
Gideon, 124, 166, 185, 187, 188n., 

247, 251, 254n., 273, 285. 
Giffard (theatrical manager), 118, 

135, 139n. 
Gildon, Chas., 95, 164. 
Glover, E., 247. 
Golden Groves of Abernethy, 66, 

75, 154. 
Golden Islands, 56-58, 59, 75. 
Golden Bump, The, 139. 
Goodman's Fields Theatre, 101, 

113, 118, 135, 139n., 140. 
Grahame, Governor, 241. 
Grant, Sir Archibald, 71. 
Grant, Eev. John, 70. 



294 



Gregory, Mrs. Ann, 1, 4. 

Grub Street Journal, The, 123n., 

126, 134n., 224, 228-232. 
Guardian, The, 155. 
Gustavus Vasa, 140. 

Habaklcuk (Hill's metrical ver- 
sion), 163n. 

Ealf-Pay Officers, 104. 

Hamlet, 127-128. 

Handel, Georg, 75, 86, 88 and n., 
92, 93, 94. 

Harlequin. See Pantomime. 

Harlequin Sorcerer, 111. 

Harlequin Horace, 134n. 

Harley, Eobert, Earl of Oxford, 
15n., 34, 155, 226. 

Harper (actor), 119. 

Haymarket opera-house, 78, 86, 91, 
104, 110. 

Haywood, Mrs. Eliza, 185-187, 
188, 189n. 

Henley, "Orator," 153. 

Henry V (Hill's), 104-109, 154, 
187, 282. 

(Earl of Orrery's), 107n. 

Hervey, Lord, 156, 242n. 

Highmore, John, 118-121, 141. 

Hill, Aaron, birth and education, 
1-4; travels in the East, 4-9; 
adventure in the catacombs, 7-8 ; 
return to England, 9; travels 
with William Wentworth, 10-11 ; 
description of, 11, 220n.; rela- 
tions with the Earl of Peter- 
borough, 13-15 ; assists Gay, 16 ; 
connection with the British 
Apollo, 16-19 ; The Invasion, 19- 
20; collaborates with Tate, 20- 
21; his Ottoman Empire, 21-26; 
marriage, 26; his "projecting" 



spirit, 29, 38-39, 43, 74-75, 275; 
the beech-mast project, 29-43; 
scheme for remitting the land- 
tax, 34; the Four Essays, 43-47; 
vineyard experiments and theo- 
ries, 46-49 ; illness, 48, 242-243 ; 
joins Sir Eobert Montgomery in 
Carolina colonizing scheme, 50- 
55; potash experiments, 51, 64; 
treasurer of the Golden Islands, 
56-58 ; his projects ridiculed, 58, 
64, 69, 230; agent of the York 
Buildings Company, 59-71; in- 
troduces rafting in the High- 
lands, 67 ; later projecting ideas, 
73-74; his versatility, 75, 152, 
275-276; tributes to, 26, 82-83, 
91, 98, 131n., 171, 178, 179, 186, 
187, 188, 194, 198n., 256n. ; man- 
ager of Drury-Lane, 80-86; 
director of the opera; 86-94 ; his 
Fatal Vision produced, 95-97; 
views on acting, 96, 114, 121- 
122, 126-131, 132n., 142; rela- 
tions with Joseph Mitchell, 97- 
98, 170-173; his Fatal Extrava- 
gance, 97-100; schemes for 
theatrical management, 101-104, 
114, 120-121, 136-137, 199; fail- 
ure of his Henry V, 104-109; 
opposition to pantomime, 110, 
112-113, 133-134; views upon 
stage regulation, 114, 137-139, 
140-141; production of Athel- 
wold, 114-118; criticism of the- 
atrical managers, 120-121, 135- 
136, 138-139; edits the Promp- 
ter, 122-139 ; his translations of 
Voltaire's plays, 141-151; edits 
the Plain Dealer, 154-161; his 
literary style, 156, 162, 166, 231 ; 



INDEX 



29 



relations with Young, 161-164; 
relations with Dennis, 164-169; 
his scriptural paraphrases, 164- 
165; relations with Mallet, US- 
UI, 247-250, 252, 274; cham- 
pions Savage, 177-184; relations 
with Eliza Haywood, 185-187; 
relations with "Clio," 188-192; 
relations with Thomson, 192- 
200; relations with Pope, 201- 
238 (see under Pope) ; writes 
The Northern Star, 201-206, 
The Progress of Wit, 209-211, 
Advice to the Poets, 218-219; 
relations with Richardson, 238- 
274 (see under Richardson) ; 
financial troubles, 241, 251; law- 
suit, 244-245; family troubles, 
245-247; literary work at Plais- 
tow, 247-254; death, 273-274; 
estimate of his achievements 
and character, 275-278. 

Hill, Mrs., wife of Aaron Hill, 26, 
66, 68, 69, 70n., 172, 185, 191n., 
221. 

Hill, Astraea, 26, 242, 243, 269, 
270-273. 

Hill, George, father of Aaron Hill, 
1. 

Hill, Gilbert, brother of Aaron, 1, 
14n., 83, 84, 205, 241, 273n. 

Hill, Julius, son of Aaron Hill, 
26, 48, 246-247. 

Hill, Minerva, 26, 269, 270-273. 

Hill, Urania, 26, 71n., 195, 211, 
218, 221, 246, 273n. 

Hill, — , nephew of Aaron Hill, 
141-143. 

"Hillarius." See Hill, Ar.ron. 

Hist. MSS. Comm., 102, 249. 

Historical Register, The, 133, 139. 



Hive, The, 177. 
Hogarth, William, 112. 
Homer, 174. 
Horace (odes), 247. 
Horsey, Col. Samuel, 59, 62 and n., 
65, 67, 68, 71n., 102, 276. 

"I. K," his Life of Hill quoted, 

4, 51. 
Idaspe fedele, 88. 
Impartial, The, 2, 247, 260, 284. 
Impartial Account of ... a new 

Discovery . . . to make Oil, etc., 

31-33, 280. 
Insolvent, The, 150n., 286. 
Instructor, The, 156. 
Invasion, The, 19-20, 279. 
Inverness, 63, 64, 66. 

Johnson, Samuel, 114n., 157, 177, 

178, 182, 183n., 184, 193, 216, 

224n., 277. 
Johnson, — , husband of Urania 

Hill, 246. 
Johnson, Urania. See Hill, Urania. 
Jonson, Ben, 112. 
Judgment Day, The, 163n., 165n., 

170, 171n., 282. 

Keene (actor), 83, 84, 96. 

Keith, Sir William, 73 and n. 

Kent, Marquis of, 82. 

Key to the Bape of the Lock, 209. 

Key to Three Hours after Mar- 
riage, 16. 

Killigrew, Sir Thomas, 77. 

Knight of the Burning Pestle, 
The, 175n., 176. 

Knipe, Dr. Thomas, 3. 

La Mort de Cesar, 147, i48. 
Lear, 128, 145. 



296 



Leeky's Eighteenth Century 

(quoted), 28m, 34n., 202n. 
Lee, Nathaniel, 95. 
Leigh (actor), 84, 85. 
Lessing, G. E., 143 and n. 
Liberty, 188n., 198-199, 200. 
Licensing Act, 76, 139-141. 
Life of Mr. John Dennis, 167-168. 
Life of Savage, 178, 183. 
Lincoln 's-Inn- Fields theatre, 77, 

86, 95, 98, 110, 113, 145, 167. 
Lintot, Bernard, 201, 202, 203, 204. 
Little Theatre in the Haymarket, 

101, 102, 103, 104, 113, 119, 120, 

135, 139-140. 
London Journal, The, 2,75. 
Lord Chamberlain, the, 77, 78, 84, 

100, 119, 140. 
Lotteries, 54 and n., 55, 56, 58, 

60n., 61 and n. 
Lounsbury, T. E. (quoted), 107n., 

145, 182, 229n. 
Love for Love, 78. 
Lover's Degree of Comparison, 

The, 19. 
Luttrell, Narcissus, 9n. 

McCrady's Hist, of South Caro- 
lina, etc., 54n., 57n, 59n. 

McSwiney, Owen, 78, 86, 94. 

Macklin, Charles, 131. 

Macpherson's Annals of Com- 
merce (quoted), 28n., 55, 56, 
59n., 65n. 

Maggot, The, 119. 

Makower, S. V., 182n. 

Mallet, David, 63, 99, 114 and n., 
116, 149, 153, 155, 169, 170, 173- 
177, 185, 189, 192, 193, 194n., 
196, 197, 198, 206n., 236, 247- 
250, 252, 255, 274. 



Mandeville, Bernard, 32n. 
Marlborough, Duchess of, 247-248. 
Marlborough, Duke of, 247 and n. 
Mars and Venus, 110. 
"Menander" (correspondent in 

Pasquin), 108-109. 
Mercator, The, 155. 
Mercurius Politicus, 25n. 
Merit of Assassination, The, 147n., 

284. 
Merope (Hill's), 149-151, 247, 

252, 274, 285. 

(Jeffreys'), 149n. 

(Voltaire's), 149, 150. 

Military Memoirs of Captain 

George Carleton, 12n. 
Millar (publisher), 252. 
Mills (actor), 115. 
Milton, John, 240. 
Mira. See "Clio." 
Miranda. See Hill, Mrs. 
Mississippi Bubble, 28. 
Mist's Weekly Journal, 69, 214. 
Mitchell, Joseph, 97, 98, 99, 153, 

169, 170-173, 189. 
Montagu, Lady Mary "Wortley, 9n., 

159, 267n. 
Montague, Duke of, 101-104. 
Montgomery, Sir Eobert, 50-51, 52, 

53, 54, 55, 56-58. 
Morel, L., his Thomson quoted, 

143n., 192n., 198. 
Morris, Edmund, 26, 40n., 83. 
Murray, David, his York Buildings 

Co. quoted, 61n., 65 and n., 66, 

67, 70, 72. 

Necromancer, or Hist, of Dr. 

Faustus, The, 111. 
Newcastle, Duke of, 100. 
New Clarissa, The, 265. 



INDEX 



297 



Nicholson, Watson, his Struggle 
for a Free Stage quoted, 101, 
125, 140. 

Nicolini, 88. 

Night Thoughts, The, 164n. 

Northern Star, The, 201-206, 208, 
280. 

Oldfield, Anne, 76, 104, 113, 178. 
Onslow, Arthur, Speaker of the 

House of Commons, 226, 238. 
Opera, 87-88, 89, 92-93, 133n. 
Orfeo, 93. 

Orpheus and Eurydice, 110. 
Othello, 132n., 144, 145, 146. 
Ottoman Empire, The, 4, 5 and n., 

6, 7n., 8, 10, 21-26, 279. 
Otway, Thomas, 82, 95, 106n. 
Oxford Hist, of Music, The, 88, 

89, 93n. 

Paget, Lord, 4, 9, 23. 
Pamela, 240, 254-260, 270. 
Pantomime, 110-113, 133-134, 138. 
Parnell, Col. Arthur, 12n. 
Pasquin (Fielding's play), 108n., 

139. 
Pasquin (the periodical), 108, 112. 
Pastoral, 286-287. 
Patents (stage), 77, 79, 95, 100, 

118-119, 121, 122, 137, 140-141. 
Paul, H. G., his John Dennis 

quoted, 164, 165. 
Pepys, Samuel, 115n. 
Peter the Great, 201, 202, 203, 205, 

206, 207. 
Peterborough, Earl of, 11-12, 14 

and n., 15, 22, 26, 80, 116. 
Phillips, Ambrose, 156. 
Picture of Love, The, 160, 185. 
Pinkethman (actor), 84 and n. 
Pirro e Demetrio, 87. 



Plain Dealer, The, started, 156; 
editors, 156-157; contents and 
characteristics, 157-161 ; suc- 
cess, 161; Young's possible con- 
tributions, 161-164; appeals in 
behalf of Dennis, 166-167; 
praise of Mitchell, 172; of Mal- 
let, 174-176; of Thomson, 192; 
champions Savage, 179-182 ; 
quoted, 3, 50n., 93, 112-113, 154, 
159, 160, 161, 165, 170, 207; 
bib., 282-283. 

Plaistow, 47-48, 72, 114, 241-242, 
243, 244, 270. 

Piatt, Sir Hugh, 45 and n. 

Poetical Register, 179, 188. 

Pope, Alexander, his opinion of 
Hill's works, 118, 204, 219, 223, 
227, 235; relations with Dennis, 
168; attacked by Hill, 203-204; 
accepts Hill's apology, 204-205; 
friendly relations with Hill, 206- 
.207, 221, 226-227; ridicules 
Hill in the Bathos, 208; the 
Dunciad episode, 208-220; satir- 
ized by Hill in the Caveat, 209- 
211; his equivocation, 212, 216, 
218, 222, 231; appeals to Hill to 
defend him, 222-224; concern 
for his reputation for honesty, 
213, 218, 223, 233 ; views of the 
sublime, 225-226; connection 
with the Grub Street-Prompter 
controversy, 228-232 ; renewal of 
intercourse with Hill, 232-235; 
his Essay on Man revised by 
Hill, 237-238; mentioned, 15, 
16, 23n., 116, 153, 166, 276, 277. 

Popple, William, 48-49, 71n., 122, 
124n., 185, 228, 231, 232. 

Post Boy, The, 56n., 155n. 



298 



INDEX 



Potter (the carpenter), 101-104. 

Powell (actor), 84, 85. 

Present State of Wit, The, 18. 

Prince of Wales, Frederick, 137, 
145, 177n., 199, 274. 

Prior, Matthew, 153. 

Progress of Wit, The, 209-211, 
215, 217, 218, 283. 

Prompter, The, started, 122; con- 
tributors, 122 and n. ; purpose, 
123; range of subjects, 123-124; 
value of, 124-125, 277 ; comment 
on plays, 124-125; criticism of 
actors, 126-130; theory of the 
art of acting, 130-131; criti- 
cism of audiences, 132; con- 
demnation of pantomime, 133- 
134; criticism of theatrical 
managers, 135-136, 138-139; 
views upon stage regulation, 
137-139; comments on Voltaire, 
144, 146; controversy with the 
Grub Street Journal, 228-232; 
mentioned, 168n., 199, 251n., 
275, 283. 

Proposal for the Better Begula- 
Hon of the Stage, 121n. 

Proprietors (of South Carolina), 
50, 53, 57 and n., 58 and n., 62n. 

Purcell, Henry, 87. 

Quin, James, 126, 131. 

Eacine, J., 151. 

Ealph, James, 122n., 132, 135n. 

Bambler, The, 156. 

Eamsay, Allan, 169 and n., 173, 

177. 
Beligion of Beason, Th°, 247, 252 

and n., 284. 
Beview, The, 155. 



Eich, Christopher, 77, 78, 79 and 
n., 83, 85, 86, 95, 100. 

Eich, John, 86n., 95, 101, 110-113, 
131, 134n., 135-136, 138, 141, 
167. 

Eichardson, Samuel, Hill's letters 
to quoted, 2, 25, 47, 73, 74, 164n., 
200, 223, 225-226, 231, 249, 251; 
his kindness to the Hill family, 
48, 250-252, 273; defended by 
Hill, 238; his nervous disorders, 
243-244, 257n.; his criticism 
of Hill 's works, 253 ; his Pamela 
praised by the Hills, 254-260; 
his difficulties with Clarissa Har- 
lowe, 260-269; his jealousy of 
Fielding, 260-273. 

Binaldo, 87, 88 and n., 89-92, 279. 

Boman Bevenge, The, 148 and n., 
220, 235, 286. 

Bosamond, 87. 

Eossi, Giaeomo, 87, 89, 92. 

Eowe, N., 95, 153. 

Eussel (the "Bavius of Grub 
Street"), 229n. 

Eycaut, Sir Paul, his Present State 
of the Ottoman Empire, 22. 

Sacheverell, Henry, 82. 
St. James's Journal, 60n. 
Saintsbury, G. E., 4n. 
Sansome, Mrs. See ' ' Clio. ' ' 
Sargeaunt, John, his Annals of 

Westminster School, 2n., 3. 
Savage, Bichard, 16, 63, 155, 157, 

166n., 177-184, 185, 187, 188, 

189n., 191, 217, 276, 277. 
Savage's Miscellany, 17, 122, 154, 

181, 185. 
Seasonable Examination, A, 137. 
Sewell, Dr. George, 205n. 



INDEX 



299 



Shadwell, Charles, 95. 
Shakespeare, William, 82, 95, 96, 

98, 105-109, 112, 128, 147, 151, 

175, 187, 197, 207, 233. 
Shelley, P. B., 201. 
Skipwith, Sir Thomas, 78. 
Sloane, Sir Hans, 241. 
Smith, Marshall, 17, 26, 185. 
Snake in the Grass, The, 135n. 
Society for the Encouragement of 

Learning, 73n. 
South Sea Bubble, 28, 29, 56, 59, 

61, 98, 154, 155, 178, 275. 
Southerne (the dramatist), 95. 
Southey, Eobert, 21 In. 
Spectator, The, 88n., 92, 156, 157, 

158. 
Spenser, Edmund, 3. 
Squire Brainless, or Trick upon 

Trick, 82. 
Stebbing, William, his Peterbor- 
ough quoted, 12, 14n., 15n. 
Steele, Sir Eichard, 42n., 60n., 74, 

80n., 95, 100, 119, 141, 155, 

168, 183, 188. 
Stephens, William, 67n., 69. 
Swift, Jonathan, 153, 155, 208, 

216. 

Tasso, 90 and n., 92. 

Tate, Nahum, 20-21, 107. 

Toiler, The, 79, 84n., 85, 88n., 155. 

Tears of the Muses, The, 284. 

Theatre, The, 100. 

Theobald, Lewis, 155, 233. 

Thomas, W., his Young quoted, 
157, 162, 163. 

Thomas, W. Moy, 181, 182. 

Thomson, James, 63n., 64n., 73n., 
114, 136, 140, 152, 153, 155, 
165n., 166n., 169, 170, 172 and 



n., 173, 184 and n., 185, 188n., 

189, 192-200, 206n., 221n., 227, 

232, 236, 268, 276, 277. 
Thomyris, 87. 
Thurmond, 111. 
Tindal, Matthew, 228, 230, 232, 

252. 
Tom Jones, 111, 125, 133, 269-273. 
Transport, The, 19. 
Treatise on the Bathos, 167n., 208, 

233. 
Trent, W. P., 12n., 25n. 
True Briton, The, 108, 109n. 
Two Harlequins, The, 110. 
Tyrconnel, Lord, 116, 183, 225. 

Unities, the, 80, 96, 106n., 117. 

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 78, 95. 
Verstegan's Antiquities, 115. 
Victor, Benjamin, 71n., 119-121, 

172, 189, 190, 193. 
Voltaire, 76, 141, 143-151, 227, 

275. 

Walking Statue, The, 80, 82, 279. 
Walpole, Sir Eobert, 100, 139 and 

n., 153, 172, 177n. 
Walpole, Lady, 227n. 
Warton, Joseph (quoted), 15, 

208n. 
Weaver, John, 110. 
Wedgwood, Josiah, 44. 
Weekly Journal, The, 112. 
Weekly Miscellany, The, 226. 
Weekly Register, The, 132-133. 
Wentworth, Sir William, 10-11, 22. 
Westminster School, 2. 
Whig Examiner, The, 155. 
Wilts, Eobert, 86, 94, 95, 96, 113, 

114-116, 118, 127-128, 183. 



300 INDEX 

William and Margaret, 174-177. Yorlc Buildings Dragon, The, 62n. 

Winter, 172, 193, 195, 196. Yorkshire Tragedy, The, 98. 

Wollaston, Dr., his Religion of Young, Edward, 157, 161-164, 

Nature Delineated, 163n. 244n. 263. 
Woman's Eights, 124, 160 and n. 
Wycherley, William, 95. 

Wyndham, Sir William, 116. Zaire, 141. 

Zara, 141-145, 198, 199, 228 and 

York Buildings Company, 59-66, n., 283. 

69-72. 



VITA 

Dorothy Brewster was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 
September 8, 1883. She received her early education in 
the schools of Philadelphia and New York City. Entering 
Barnard College, Columbia University, in the autumn of 
1902, she proceeded to the degree of A.B. in 1906, and to 
that of A.M. in 1907. From 1908 to 1911, she taught in 
the Department of English in Barnard College as Assist- 
ant ; from 1911 to 1912, she was a Special Fellow in English 
at Columbia University. During the years of her graduate 
study under the Faculty of Philosophy in Columbia Uni- 
versity, she pursued courses in English and Comparative 
Literature under Professors W. P. Trent, A. H. Thorndike, 
W. W. Lawrence, H. M. Ayres, J. B. Fletcher, V. C. Gilder- 
sleeve, and J. W. Cunliffe, and Professor Otto Jespersen of 
the University of Copenhagen; and in History under Pro- 
fessor J. H. Robinson. 



301 













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